


Cold Cobalt Cage

by scaredykitty



Category: Garrett P.I. - Glen Cook
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 16:04:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 45
Words: 48,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8759728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scaredykitty/pseuds/scaredykitty
Summary: Morley asks Garrett's help with recovering an artifact. Garrett agrees.





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a cold late fall month, the city of TunFaire being unusually quiet. Despite the general unrest in the city over the end of the war, it was a fairly smooth transition, according to the Dead Man. Then again, anything short of outright war might be a calm transition to him, he didn't actually say how many wars ended in his time, at least human wars. When we do wars, we do it for the long haul. So when we actually finish them, we finish them with flair and panache. 

Or not, as everything had just sort of fallen apart without much fanfare. Sure, there had been parades and celebrations, but the common folk (myself included) hadn't seen terribly much change, other than the difficulty of changing from a war economy to a peacetime one. I'm sure the problems were just starting for those who owned business that relied on the military. My own job didn't really care if there was a war going on. There'd always be people looking to find a missing loved one, or a lost cause needing someone to find that last relic that they just know will revitalize everything and rally people once more.

However, the fates themselves didn't see fit to allow me too much rest. I had been kept busy with some minor work, a case of a missing daughter (died, unfortunately, long before we found her, pinned it to her boyfriend) and some minor cases of theft among the more well to do merchants. The Dead Man had gone to sleep out of boredom, which was fine by me. Less trouble from him pushing me to take harder cases. Not that had there been any harder cases knocking on my door.

But one had to come to me anyway, in an incredibly familiar package.

When the front door to the house started to rattle then clicked open, I was fairly surprised. No one beside myself and Dean had the keys currently, and Dean should be gone to the market for another two hours or so. We had gotten dangerously low on food, so him and Singe had gone to get more, as well as a few other things we had been putting off buying.

All on my dime, of course, so I'm sure they'd be getting only the finest of items for our downright palatial estate. Although compared to where I used to live, it was pretty impressive, managing to house three people on and off, and a corpse.

Not that the corpse ate much in the way of mortal food. I'm pretty sure he dined off of the mental energy we all produced around him, like some kind of leech. He didn't respond to that, which let me know he was quite fast asleep.

Peaking out of the office holding one of the head thumpers I keep under the desk just in case, I saw the willowy form of a very particular dark elf just starting to slip inside the house.

Morley was a friend, a good friend, so good in fact he shouldn't be needing to pick the locks to my home to get inside. So why was he casually picking my lock in the middle of the day?

Strolling out in the hallway, I tapped the wall with the head thumper lightly.

“Any reason why you decided to pick the lock to my door instead of just knocking?” I said, bemused. Morley grinned at me as he slipped inside the house, shutting the door behind him quietly.

He was dressed to...well, not impress today. It was still impressive, of course, since he was the one wearing it. He could wear filthy rags and still look that elusive combination of daring and exotic the girls love. Not that it would stay dirty, dirt just sort of slipped off of him. He was wearing what one could almost call his working clothes. Not working clothes for the Palms, his restaurant store front, but more for his real job of cutting throats and breaking limbs. All black or dark coloured so stains weren't immediately visible, loose fitting enough to move in, but not enough to grab or tear if someone got feisty with him. I was worried about that. I doubted he'd be so brazen to take a contract on me then stroll over and just cut me up in my own home, but you never knew with him.

Someone had contracted him before and he had refused. At least once, I should add, others could have tried hiring him since then. I just kept hoping whatever they were paying wasn't enough for Morley to accept. I knew there'd be a price eventually he'd take, but I tried to not dwell on exactly how much our friendship cost.

Morley sort of shrugged, slipping his lockpicks away somewhere I couldn't see, long fingers too quick and nimble for me follow.

“Can't a guy come to visit his friend and practice his lockpicking at the same time?” he said, grinning. Something was wrong. Despite his carefree attitude, he seemed quite nervous about something as the two of us sat down in my office, him sitting down instead of sprawling like normal. He was like a cat in that regard. If he was comfortable, he was taking up all the space and preening. When he wasn't, it was like a small ball of barely contained nerves, sitting on the edge of his seat.

He wasn't quite there yet, just seated on the chair, not on the edge. So maybe we had some time to discuss the issues rather than just get up and take care of whatever it was that was bothering him.

I raised a single eyebrow at him, indicating he should stop bullshitting and actually answer the question. 

He sighed, templing his fingers as he pursed his lips, dark elven features clouded and brooding. He wanted to answer, but wasn't sure how to word it, it seemed to me.

“What do you know of Carathca?” he said, throwing me off balance with the suddenness of the question.

“It fell something like three hundred years ago? Abandoned now, an old evil Loghyr turned it into a death cult, which us humans didn't like, destroyed it?” I said. All common knowledge, really. Common knowledge for those of us who had dealt with the evil Logyr first hand, at least. He nodded slightly, accepting the answer. He remembered the event also. It was sort of hard to forget when giant multi limbed monstrosities suddenly just materialize from the sky, intent on drinking your blood. Or eating organs. Or whatever it is that they do, we hadn't stuck around long enough to find out any of the times they had appeared.

He sighed, leaning back in the chair, looking thoughtful. “The royalty of Carathca is still alive, and has made some futile attempts to rebuild, as you likely also know.” 

I did, although I hadn't given it much thought. There was no way for them to rebuild, not within a lifetime, not even an elven life time. The early kings of Karentine had made damn sure it was quite razed...well, as razed as an underground city fortress can be. They wanted to be quite sure the cult wouldn't have a place to hide when they burned it out. They had just moved into TunFaire instead and killed the King themselves before being killed for the time being.

He shifted in the chair, looking uneasily. “All dark elves can be called upon to do a single service to the king or queen, as the case may be. This almost never comes up, at least not for a long time.”

“So it's come up now, and they're calling on you.” This wasn't something I knew about, but I had heard of various similar services among other cultures. I suspected the current Karentine King could do the same, if he stopped partying and looked into the ancient laws and bylaws that still existed in some form or another. I had suspected the Prince could also, but if he had that power, I was surprised he hadn't used it against me, forced me to be some kind of royal investigator for the crown. Whatever reasons he had for not press ganging me into that situation, I was quite happy for it. I liked my freedoms to choose what cases I worked on, damn it. 

Morley nodded, confirming my beliefs. I wasn't always dense, sometimes I was even perceptive! I could almost hear the Dead Man laughing at me, but I was quite sure he was still asleep. A gentle mental chuckle, shared between the two of us, perhaps.

“Yes. I got a message from the Queen. Quite legit, so it's not some sort of prank from some whelp who thinks it would be funny to start calling in favours from people,” he said as he removed a letter from his breast pocket, sliding it over to me across the desk.

I opened it up, perusing it briefly. It was written in high elvish, which caused me to frown at him. He grinned back. He had to throw the joke in there, knowing I could read, but only in common Karentine. The only thing I could make out was that the handwriting was quite impeccable, as well as the paper itself seemed quite fancy. It might also be entirely misspelled, I had no way of knowing.

“It basically says that they are calling upon my expertise to find a royal relic called the Cobalt Cage. Or hmmm....no, cage works the best. It's an old relic, used by the royalty to do...something. They were vague about it, other than it should be made of cobalt. Unsure if they mean unrefined cobalt or the colour.” They were two rather different looking things. It was almost magical how dyers could take such weird items and turn them into vibrant colours. 

He leaned forward, frowning, sounding almost desperate.

“This is not my expertise, as you know. I go get things, once they're found. And deal with them. I can't find them, I almost always get very explicit directions beforehand. Which is why I'm here, asking for your help. I can't offer much, business has been slow, but they will pay for the relic, they must according our laws. I just ask that you find it, so that I can go and get it from wherever it's wound up. The entire payment will be yours.”

I leaned back in my chair, pushing the letter back to him, pondering it. We had been both fairly even, even if I did rag on him for the whole vampire thing. He had saved my sorry ass enough times, as well as did enough work for me, one could say we were more than just even.

You could say I owed him, maybe. Just the smallest bit of owing, of course.

I frowned hard enough to give myself some new wrinkles, I'm sure of it. Everything about this seemed terrible. Dark elves, ancient cursed relics, and Morley? Find the relic itself should be easy enough though, right? The rest we'd just have to deal with as we went along.

I nodded, noting the relief on his face. I was relieved that he was relieved. Seeing him look so concerned had made me also concerned. Something made me think that maybe this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought it would be. Nothing ever was.

I should listen to these feelings, according to the Dead Man. But I couldn't just leave Morley in the lurch, given how long we'd been friends. Especially if not doing this for the dark elves would be as deadly as it looked like it could be for him. If he died, I wouldn't be able to make fun of him any more, and that was just downright terrible.

I should also have been wary because Morley is as beautiful as any ten women and ten times as deadly also. Perhaps the gods themselves decided that Morley was added to the clause to fuck over little old me with pretty things, just to make my life more interesting. Also maybe because most of the prettier ladies had decided to take a break from me for the time being. Smart on their end, maybe. Terribly dull on my end.


	2. Chapter 2

We started to chat about my business before a loud thumping came at the door, causing us both to frown. A veritable synchronicity of frowning.

“You weren't followed, were you?” I said, sighing as he shook his head. If he had been, he would have already taken care of it, and he sure wasn't carting a body around as he picked the lock to front door.

Standing up, I nodded at him as I excused myself, strolling into the hallway, yanking the door open, causing the short mostly human in front of me to stumble and grab the door frame, off balance as he was about to pound on the door again.

I grinned at him, noting he was wearing the uniform of one of Block's enforcers. One of the newer uniforms also, which meant Block had money again. There really was a dangerous outbreak of law and order lately. Made my job both easier and harder. Easier in that if I was tracking someone that was breaking the law I had some help. Harder in that breaking the law myself was much more difficult to slip by.

Policeman, I suppose, was the term they wanted to be called these days. A jest, a joke on something most people had already forgotten, perhaps. They were just another form of enforcers, just legalized by the crown, these ones. I recognized him as one of the guys I had seen before, not anyone terribly important, one of the average guys who just walked around the city looking for trouble. His face told me he had seen some trouble between when I had seen him last, faint scars crawling over his forehead and down the right side of his face.

“We had reports of a dark....uh, a dark elf breaking into your place?” he said, noting my raised eyebrow. I rolled my eyes at Mrs. Cardonlos, sighing. She sneered at me before slamming her window shut. I nodded at him as coolly as possible. I pulled it off quite well, I felt. Maybe they'd give me a nice nickname, something to do with how calm and collected I was.

“Indeed there was! I took care of him. Right old fight we had, rough and tumble, laid him right out, it's all good now, no need for alarm,” I said, attempting to shut the door in his face. I nearly managed to, but he had apparently taken a course on “How to Foil Garrett at Every Turn.”

He shoved his foot in between the door, the heavy metal tipped boot keeping me from getting away from him. “Sir. Please tell Mr. Dotes that if he's going to break into houses, especially yours, please to do it after dark so I'm not called for spurious things again, okay?” he said before stomping off. A smart one, that, I decided. He knew he didn't want to mess with Morley even if it was his job to do so. Morley wouldn't hesitate to slice him up. Well, not true. He'd hesitate for a bit pondering if he could take Block and the rest of his gang out also, then decide he could. Block wouldn't like hearing about that though. He wanted all his mean willing to take out whoever needed to be taken out, even if they outclasses every they had on call.

Morley appeared behind me as I closed the door, causing me nearly to jump out of my skin. He was quiet as a ghost and twice as deadly when he wanted to be. Ghosts weren't as darkly coloured though. None I had ever seen. I pondered briefly what a dark elf ghost would look like. Maybe what we took for high elf ghosts were actually dark elf ghosts having a laugh at our expense, being unable to tell them apart.

“Sorry about that,” he said, nodding at the closed door. Of course he'd be listening in, couldn't help himself. I'd have listened in also, but it was my job to shove my nose where it didn't belong. It was his job to shove daggers where they didn't belong. 

Sometimes the two jobs met each other.

I shrugged, coming back from my daydream of elves and ghosts. “No worries. She'd have called the cops even if you were here on legitimate business and carrying the kings seal with you. Can't have those wicked dark elves running around, after all! Especially not if they're in cahoots with that vile Garrett!” I said, shaking my fist at myself, as though I was her.

I stretched, watching as Morley gave me sharp and pointed grin. I really didn't want to leave the house, but I should get this started now. The Dead Man was always harping on me for giving into my procrastination. Maybe if I got this over with before he woke up I could gloat at him. Not that it did much good, he'd find something else to be superior about, or worse, he'd claim it was his doing that I got off my ass and did stuff without his prodding. “I'm going to go to the library, see if I can find any accounts of your pretty city from our side of the story, see where they hauled the riches away to. If you want to ask around the elven communities, that might be the best for now.”

He nodded, slipping out the door as I wrote a quick letter to Dean and Singe, dropping it on the kitchen table. I grabbed one of the books I had “borrowed” from the library before strolling out of the house, locking it securely behind me. Not that it had stopped Morley, obviously. It would stop Mrs. Cardonlos from snooping around while we were gone. She had gotten terribly brazen, calling the police on Morley, someone she had seen around before. I guess I should have known she'd try that though, have to keep little old Garrett in his place.

As I strolled down the street trying to not breath the dirty air too deeply, I noted the weather had a distinct crispness around the edges, a warning of an early winter. We had had early winters before, and they never brought good things with them. They usually brought feet of snow, an inability to get out of the house, and general bickering amongst house mates as boredom set in. Never a good time. Better to be inside going mad though, and not outside freezing fingers or noses off. The only benefit I saw currently was no one had started burning their wood fireplaces. Maybe we were safe for another few weeks, maybe.

I almost failed to notice my dark elf tail as I stomped off towards the library. He only made himself known when he made an amateur mistake, causing one of the locals to chastise him loudly. Watching him out of the corner of my eye, I noticed he was certainly not a local. Too odd of clothing, and stuck out like a sore thumb the more I watched as he tried to get away from the angry local. By that time though, I was already far enough away that finding me again was going to be difficult for him.


	3. Chapter 3

The library had huge scaffolding and repairmen hanging off of it, repairing the façade even as they continued to add another story to the building. The air itself smelled of limestone, a slightly acrid scent, cloying and sticky at the back of the throat. Seemed like the Prince was spreading more love to the library though, given limestone was not cheap. My lovely librarian Linda Lee would adore that, she had a thing for pretty limestone buildings. Or maybe not, given the absolute racket the construction made, and yet they still had to be open. Not that being open meant too much, as it wasn't open to the public. Not yet at least. There had been talk about opening the library to the public and teaching literacy, but I couldn't see it happening. The rabble had better things to do than to read boring old books, after all. Or I hope they did, I didn't want them to get the books all dirty. Makes it harder for me to read them. I always returned my books clean. Never mind what Linda Lee says.

I strolled in through the worker's entrance, blending in quite well with the other rough and tumble types. They didn't pay me any attention, continuing to work studiously. I looked over the construction briefly, impressed with what I saw. Looked like the Prince was springing for some heavy duty work done. Springing even more on the pay it seemed, the workers were actually working hard. I nodded to who appeared to be the foreman on the way in. He nodded back, eyes glossing over me. I was in. The easiest way to get in was to pretend you should be there, after all.

Looking around, it seemed the first two floors were also undergoing some renovations. The books had been packaged away, likely stored down in the basements for the time being. They wouldn't be there long, it would damage them too much, being in the slightly damp basement. Almost all basements in TunFaire were slightly damp, especially with how the weather was currently. Which meant the workers were on a strict deadline.

It seemed I was wrong about the library not teaching literacy lessons. Linda Lee was surrounded by what appeared to be about fifteen kids, all recognizable from various well off middle class merchant families. I stood off to the side, watching as she read a book upside down to the children. A neat trick, that.

She finally looked up as she finished the chapter, a parable about the dangers of not listening to your elders, it sounded like. Her expression instantly soured. I frowned, patting myself down. I surely didn't look that bad. I had made sure I was clean and dressed before leaving the house.

“Go over to the table and start doing some spelling exercises,” she said, nodding at the table nearby. Small hand held chalkboards and chalk rested on the table. The children nodded, walking over to the table. A few gave me curious looks, but ignored me as they got to work scribbling out random words from the larger chalkboard on the table before wiping them off and starting over again.

Linda Lee grabbed the book from my hands, giving me a ferocious look as she flipped through it, looking for any damage. She seemed almost surprised to see it was in perfect condition still.

“Linda Lee! How are you? Where's the head librarian? Whisked away by one of the workmen, I hope?”

She got a dangerous twinkle in her eye as she smirked at me. “You're looking at the new head librarian, Garrett. The city saw fit to retire my previous boss and set her up with a nice pension for her work done.” She lowered her voice. “Mostly because she was throwing a fit about any construction being done at all to the library, and the Prince saw that she needed to go if progress was to be made.”

I nodded as she led me down the aisles, half the books boxed up, the sturdier of them still out on the shelves. She looked back at the children who were working diligently.

“New program?” I said, also looking over the kids, who seemed to be well behaved. One of the older kids was even helping the youngest, showing him how to write properly. I shook my head, amazed at how well Linda Lee had gotten them to do their work. When I was growing up, mother had to smack the back of our hands to get us to stay seated. Well, my hands the most, I was an inattentive little shit head growing up.

“Sort of? The Prince set the program up, but none of the nobles or truly well to do wanted to send their kids here, as they all already have private tutors. So he leaned on the merchants, and is giving them tax breaks if they send their kids here and talk about what a good idea it is. Not that it's under his name though, he makes sure everyone thinks the King recommended it,” she said, chewing on her lip as she laid a hand on my arm. 

The Prince had been doing that even more as of late. He'd have to be careful, otherwise the King might think he was trying to get the citizens to support him for the position of the throne. It was smart he was putting it in the kings name, but the king still might take umbrage with it. You never knew with the royals. Then again, the King was usually more busy partying than dealing with any sort of court intrigue. Which was to his disadvantage, last I heard through the grapevine. Maybe we were due for another ruler soon. We did like to go through our royal lines quickly, sometimes. I nodded slowly, pondering how to frame the request I had to make.

I looked over the rows of books for a moment, listening to the quiet sound of the kids writing on the chalkboards as we stepped further away from them.

“I have a request to make, my lovely Linda Lee,” I said, looking as though the idea only just came into my head.

“Of course you do Garrett, why else would you be here?”

I gasped, placing a hand over my heart, staggering around a bit. “You wound me! You wound me! I've come before to borrow books, which isn't a request, and more of...” Linda frowned at me. She looked on the cusp of about to give me a diatribe about how it wasn't borrowing, it was theft. Even if I always returned the books, and on time! Which was whenever I finished them or got too bored with them. “Right, yeah,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “I need to read some books about the fall of Carathca, from our accounts, what happened to the city itself, not the war. Or from the dark elves side, but I can't read high elven, so unless they're translated, it'll be a bit hard to understand.”

She went from looking annoyed to looking thoughtful, which was a much better look on her. She pursed her lips, seeming to ponder the question. “We might have a book or two, although the war wasn't very well covered at the time. The king was a fanatic, and most of the books were about either our “Great and Terrible Victory” or about how the righteous always prevail. Might be why they stabbed him in the back over it. You can read those though, if you want. They might mention something in passing?” she said as she whisked me away, pulling some books off the shelf. Without hesitating, she dragged me back over to where the kids were, dropping me at the table with the books.

I side eyed the kids as they side eyed me before opening the book, starting to read it. The writing was so dry I knew I'd need to drink a gallon of beer when I got home. Hopefully Dean had remembered to order some while he was out.

I sighed softly, flipping a page. One of the younger kids looked at me from over his writing tablet. “Having trouble with a word, mister?” I smiled back at him. He was a cute kid, one of the sons of a prominent baker in town. 

I shook my head. “Just reading something very boring.”

He nodded solemnly, understanding completely. I was sure they all felt the same about some of the books that Linda Lee made them read or read to them. There wasn't very many children's books, at least not when I was growing up. Maybe someone had written more, but I'm sure it didn't pay well.

Finished with the first book, I pushed it aside, pondering the second book. The first had been mind numbing recreations of the war, as well as detailed theories about how the war could have been lost, but wasn't, because praise the king, of course. It had had no mention of anything after the war, other than the normal talk of parades and granting of leniency to some of the fleeing dark elves, provided they could pay for said leniency. There had been nothing detailing any scavenging of the city, nor of what happened to any of the wealth the city had contained. You'd think if they had many precious artifacts, there'd be a mention somewhere, anywhere, of what happened to them, even if it was just a passing mention of “And then the king used the artifact sheets as toilet paper, because he could”.

The second book was at least more interesting, talking about the city of Carathca and the fighting that took place therein. There was descriptions of various booby traps which the dark elves seemed to love so very much. Spike chains, pools of acid, spike traps. Poisons of various types coating all of those, of course. Even the pools of acid, somehow. There was talk of some more exotic magical traps, but our sorcerers had apparently put an end to that, stripping them of their power, or most of their power. At least, most of them. The author seemed inordinately worried that some of them might still exist, and urged people to not go grave robbing. Just as I finished the second book, I looked up. The kids were still there, although they were all eating. I hadn't notice when the food had arrived, but I shrugged, snagging an apple from the bucket in the centre of the table. The kids seemed unsure whether or not I was allowed to, but decided ultimately it wasn't their choice, and went back to eating, yammering about some new book that had arrived they wanted to read. A story about goblins or something. Maybe someone was writing children's books still.

I excused myself, traipsing through the library before I found Linda Lee. She was seated on a chair, sorting through some books, a pair of glasses perched on her cute little nose. I tapped her gently on the shoulder, causing her to throw the book she was holding into the air. I deftly caught it, before handing it back to her. She frowned at me again, the second time today. I was wounded all over once more.

“Interesting books, even if the first book was boring. Nothing in there though that helps. If you can find anything else, let me know?” I said, starting to turn and walk away. She grabbed a hold of my shirt sleeve, stopping me in my tracks.

I turned back, raising a single eyebrow, causing her to flush.

“Actually, Garrett, there's something I need you to do for me in return. I got word there is a book merchant in town. He sent word that he has some rare books that he wanted me to see first. I don't think I can leave the library currently, also the wording just...creeps me out,” she said, handing me a dingy letter, pressing against me slightly, making reading the letter difficult, but I stoically prevailed.

Perusing the letter, I frowned. He wanted her to come alone to study some old books? Alone? Because she was the only librarian he trusted. I sighed. My Linda Lee, so very book smart. Not so people smart. Although she did know that it wasn't the brightest idea, so maybe I was rubbing off on her in a good way.

“I'll go for you, pick up the books if they're legit. Think of it as one of my gifts to you for making it to head librarian.”

She nodded, handing me a small bag of coins with a brilliant smile. I hefted the bag, raising an eyebrow again. “That should cover the cost of the books. Consider any extra to be payment for having you trek back and forth across town for me,” she said before giving me a quick peck on my check and letting go of my sleeve.

I smiled at her before strolling out of the library, nodding at the workmen as I did so.


	4. Chapter 4

I had several hours to kill before the impromptu meeting with the travelling bookseller, and so decided to make my way to a more high end and less travelled bookseller. The street they were located on was a fair distance away, much closer to the hill than I remembered. I was slightly out of breath by the time I got there, grumbling about the incline of the street, and not my lack of self discipline to keep my exercise routine up.

I had also managed to pick up a tail again. I couldn't quite see who it was, they seemed more competent than the last guy, at the least.

I strolled into the store, smiling at the guy behind the counter. It was a fifty fifty shot in the guy was also the owner, so I decided to be polite, even if he was staring at me like he wasn't quite sure if I could read or not.

I stuck out my hand. “Name's Garrett. Hoping to find some light reading.” He tilted his head, as though the words “light” and “reading” had never been connected before. He also seemed puzzled with my hand, so I shrugged and put it away. I could save my hand for someone less easily befuddled. 

He seemed to carefully pick his words, as though they were precious gems that were in scarce supply. Maybe they were for him. 

“What...exactly...are you looking for?” he said, trying his hardest to not sneer at me.

He failed terribly. The sneer completed his look though, made him fit in more with the pretentiousness of the book store itself. It was a magnificent sneer though, his entire face transforming as he did so. Goblins themselves would have welcomed him as a friend had they seen his face now.

“Light reading, like I said. Or failing that, books about the fall of Carathca, I suppose,” I said, as patient and calmly as one would talk to a young child.

His face twisted for a moment before he nodded, moving out from behind the counter as he looked over the books. Either the carpet in the store was exceptionally good, or he had some elven blood in him himself with the way he made no sound. He silently pulled a book from the shelf, placing it on the counter.

It was slightly dusty, although the cover and pages seemed to be in good repair. He kept a steady hand on it, refusing to let me touch it before he saw the colour of my coins.

“It recounts the war and the subsequent fall, as well as the fleeing of the remaining dark elves. It's 100 crowns, if you're quite sure you want it?” he said, voice full of disbelief to if I had the money at all.

I frowned at him and pulled out the coins, dropping them on the counter before grabbing the book. He raised an eyebrow before nodding, sitting back down behind the counter, reading one of the many books there.

Stepping outside I opened the book.

All in high elvish. Of course. I sighed, tucking it under my arm. When I got back to Linda Lee I could ask her to get me a translator for the book. I'm sure the bookseller was chuckling to himself now, how he sold a yokel a book in high elvish for a kings ransom. I'd go back and argue with him, but it was getting late, and to be fair, I hadn't told him I needed it written in Karentine, now did I.

With my luck it would turn out it was a detailed recreation of the sex lives of elves or something else terrible. That would be great if my tail decided to jump me after all, with me carrying around a book detailing how much I wanted to have coitus with members of his species. Speaking of my tail, if he was back, he was hanging much further back than before, which was fine by me. Further away he was, the less I had to worry about dealing with him.

I decided to take my time wandering the streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of my tail. It seemed there was a more than just one of them, and they were coordinated. They were being very polite though, no bashing me over the head with a nightstick, or drugging me, or stabbing me in the back. I'd have to let them know I appreciated it if I ran into them.

The sun had started to set just as I found the place from the hastily written letter. Looking around, I was right to have been worried about Linda Lee. No actual respectable bookseller would be selling books this close to the docks, the books could get damaged. That apparently didn't stop the heavyset guy leaning against a small cart, filled with what appeared to be some very dingy books. I casually strolled over to him, trying to look like the kind of guy who buys books from carts on the docks during the twilight hours.

He was more muscular than I first suspected, although he was also gifted with a fair amount of fat around the middle. Short black hair and small beady eyes made me all the more confident that he was here to scam Linda Lee. I instantly disliked him, for attempting to scam a nice little librarian like that.

I looked over the books as he looked over me, eyes narrowed to the point where I could barely see them any more.

I decided to get to the point, as I didn't really want to dawdle at the docks, what with Dean and Singe should have been home hours ago. Maybe if I was lucky Dean left some food in the oven for me to eat when I reappeared.

“So it seems you were going to have a meeting with a certain librarian,” I said. Apparently this was a mistake, as he jerked backwards suddenly. With surprising quickness, he grabbed a book I hadn't noticed before, a huge iron bound tome covered in arcane symbols with which he walloped me on the head with. I thought about telling him that testing your wares out on customers might be a good way to get them to buy them, but I passed out before I could finish the thought that maybe it only worked when the customer didn't pass out.


	5. Chapter 5

I hadn't been out for long when I woke up, since I felt the mossy cobblestones underneath me, which meant the guy hadn't managed to move me yet or do anything. Everything was winking on and off so I just laid still for the moment, savouring the delicious salt water rocks. I shifted slightly, and as I did so I realized there was a foot planted quite firmly in the small of my back.

Not a very large foot, so not the guy who had so cruelly made me become intimately acquainted with the ground and rocks thereof. Also, I could see his feet in front of me, large feet leading to larger ankles and legs. Worn, dirty boots also. He'd need to change them soon. I decided to not tell him this, and instead listen in on the conversation above me. The words had stopped ringing quite so much, and had started to form into actual words and sentences.

“I'm curious as to why you decided to knock out this gentleman when all he did was ask you an innocent question,” a very familiar voice said. My brain turned around for a few moments before finally settling on who it was unhappily.

Ah, Morley to my rescue again. Damn, I might not have any leverage over him when we were done with our escapades if he rescued me so often. That would be bad. Then again, it was his troubles that got me into this situation, although I'm sure he'd think differently, as I didn't have to come here, this was a personal quest to help Linda Lee, and not him. But he might have had books about Carathca! Probably not though.

“I uh, I didn't realize he was uh, under your protection,” the guy said, nervously. Under Morley's protection? Excuse me? I was my own agent, thank you very much. I only managed to mumble something incoherent apparently, causing Morley to subtly press down slightly harder, a warning to either shut the fuck up or something. I wasn't sure the something yet.

So I shut the fuck up and listened more.

“That would be one way of thinking of it. So, again, I'm curious as to why you've knocked my friend here out, necessitating my rescue of him. I dislike having to rescue him so often,” Morley said. It sounded like he was juggling something in his hands. It must be one of his blades. I had never actually seen them up close, he always put them away before I could. Custom work, though. Quick and clean and deadly. Like himself, I mused.

Hey wait! He didn't rescue me that often! Hell, this was the first time I months! I grumbled slightly, earning another lean from Morley. My lower back was starting to ache. Hell, my everything was starting to ache, especially my head. Gods above it hurt now that I was thinking about it. Hell, thinking about it made it hurt even. My jaw hurt from where I had hit the pavement. The only part of me that didn't hurt that much was my feet, but I'm sure something could be arranged to make them ache soon.

The guy seemed nervous, rightfully so. Having the worlds best assassin spinning a blade in front of you did that to a man. Well, Morley considered himself to be the best, I'm sure there were assassins in the past that were greater. Maybe Morley could hear me mentally praising him, since it felt like he had decided to start picking his nails with his dagger.

The guy swallowed, before carefully picking his words. He was almost as slow as the guy at the book store.

“I had...uh, I had asked one of his friends to come here, apparently. We were planning on using her to get into the library and steal some books for sale. That's all!” he said, voice suspiciously high pitched and squeaky. I really hoped he had control of his bowels, as I didn't want to be this close to him, and downhill, if he failed to maintain command of them at any point.

“Fuck you,” I managed to get out, cracking a single eyelid open again, tilting my head to look up at him. Morley looked down, removing his foot from my back as he helped me get up.

“You try to do any shit to Linda Lee again and they'll be binding the books with your skin,” I said more vehemently than I wanted to. It wasn't an idle threat, and he knew it. Several of the older books in the library were bound with human leather. Even if sorcerers used human skin for books more often, some of the more gruesome accounts of said sorcerers also used the same, as some sort of irony. He nodded once before practically sprinting away, leaving the pile of books and wagon behind. I gently touched the back of my head, wincing. I'd be feeling this for awhile. I started to look over the books, see if I could salvage any to give to Linda Lee, but Morley was pulling me away.

“I already looked at the books, they're all trash. Some literally, just sheets of paper shoved into hard bindings. We have bigger problems though, Garrett. Spud overhead my issues when I was talking to Puddle, and has gone and gotten himself in trouble in Elf town,” Morley said, trying to urge me to get a move on it. I managed to get moving, although not at the speed Morley clearly wanted. I started to put more effort into it, wincing with each jogging step. “He's gone and gotten himself knocked out for his troubles, apparently. Puddle sent word to me that he's taking care of that, and that I needed to come get you, apparently you had some of my cousins tailing you. Seems like you ran into something more stupid though,” he bemoaned as we jogged off towards Elf town. Elf town was fairly close by the river, they needed it given how many trees and plants they loved to have in their yards. I disliked the place, it always felt too artificially beautiful, too lacking of any true beauty. You needed a few blemishes to make the beauty stand out better. At least, that's what I personally felt, and had the motto etched into my handsome mug.

“It wasn't stupid, he got the jump on me,” I grumbled, touching my forehead. Some blood. I wiped my hand off on the front of my shirt.

Most of them had turned in for the night, so the only people out on the street were the nefarious sort of elves, those like Morley who you didn't really want to get into a discussion about shop with, since it's all they liked to talk about with strangers. With intimate details. Morley side eyed them though, and they left us well enough alone until we found the place. It wasn't too difficult to find, not with the extra help we had.

Puddle was standing outside, the huge mountain of a man that he was he was quite difficult to miss. He apparently had already done the job for us, holding a slightly bruised and sagging Spud. I relaxed slightly, letting some of the tension drain from me. I didn't really hadn't wanted to get into another fight when this badly damaged. Not that I would have, Morley would have sliced anyone in his way. As it was, I could see the forms of some unconscious elves inside the nearby house. I was pleasantly surprised they weren't dead. Or at least, they weren't all dead. Maybe some of them were dead. Maybe my nagging had finally given Morley and his crew some scruples. Likely not, more likely it was just easier for Puddle to knock them unconscious. Saved time just swinging the elves around and throwing them into walls and letting them realize it was better to pretend to be unconscious than alive. People learned quick it was better to pretend to be out than awake when Puddle wanted you knocked out.

Spud attempted to stand up straight and look tough for his uncle, but it was clear he was failing. I'm sure we looked like twins at this point, me hanging onto Morley for support, Spud hanging off of Puddle. He gave me a small chuckle when he saw me.

“Guess we both got into trouble,” he said, wincing as he rubbed his head.

Morley let out a soft tch sound. “What were you planning on doing, Spud? Just going to go kill the king and queen yourself?” He sounded more amused than annoyed, though it was clear he was also annoyed.

“I mean, it's been done in the past!” Spud sputtered, sounding slightly disgruntled. It was clear he wasn't sure what he was doing out here. Puddle took over for Spud, acting as the kids translator almost.

“Spud here overheard da boss complaining about da queen. The elven queen, so we is all on da same page, right like. Spud den decided to be a hero and try and rough up some of the queen's guards that were in dere. Spud got da tar knocked out of im. Saw Spud was gone, and thought about what mighta happened and told da boss. Boss went to go get you while I went ta look for Spud,” Puddle said. My head hurt again.

“Why did Morley come and look for me first? Why not go get Spud first? Also, isn't your sister going to be furious about him getting the shit kicked out of him again?” Morley and Puddle gave each other a look before Morley shook his head.

“I knew Puddle could take care of this, and I hadn't heard from you in a bit, thought I should see what was wrong,” he said, flashing me a mouth full of sharp pointed teeth. He was hiding something. I grunted dismissively, standing up, pushing him away slightly. “As for my sister, what she doesn't know won't hurt her, right Spud?”

Spud nodded, rubbing his head. “Fell down da stairs chasing one of the bosses lovers men away,” he said, earning a smirk from Puddle and an annoyed snort from Morley. Morley turned towards me, tilting his head slightly, appearing almost like an inquisitive cat.

“Have you learned anything?”

I paused, trying to decide if I should nod yes or no, before pulling out the book from the book store. Seemed like it's brief time near the wet rocks had gotten it damp, but it hadn't soaked through the cover yet.

“I guess? Maybe? Not really...” I said, shrugging as Morley sighed. “There's a ton of books about the war going “Huzzah! Humans!” but not a lot about the grave robbing afterwards. This book might have info, but I can't read it,” I said, tossing it to Morley. Morley deftly grabbed it, flipping it open.

Morley's face twisted up, looking very puzzled before he flipped through the book a bit more. He tilted his head back and forth before shrugging, tossing the book back. I managed to catch it, perhaps a bit less gracefully than he had, but I still caught it before it touched the ground. Puddle smirked at me. I doubted he thought he was more graceful than I was, given he was a good deal taller and heavier than I was.

“It's written in ancient Elvish, Garrett. I can't read that any more than you can read ancient Karentine.”

I cursed for a moment, filled with loathing. “Looks like another trip back to the library, then. Tomorrow,” I said, looking up at the sky. The sky was turning beautiful shades of reds and and gold, for which I admired briefly before nodding at Morley and his gang before taking off towards home.

The walk back home was wonderfully uneventful. The door had been chained from the inside though, necessitating my nearly nightly ritual of door pounding and shouting of Dean's name. The door bolts finally opened, letting me slip inside. Dean nodded at me, despite my annoyed grumbling. He looked over me before worrying about the bruise on my head, bustling off to find some rags to clean me up with.

I eased into the kitchen and sat down at the table, noting the food on the table was still warm, and there was even a place set for me. I dug in as Dean cleaned my head for me, berating me for getting scrapped up again. It felt like I was living with someone's grandparents, sometimes.

“You can blame Morley for that,” I said, around a mouth full of mashed potatoes. I'm sure they were filled with as much butter and milk as possible, given how much my taste buds were delighting in their creaminess. After eating my fill and when Dean was quite done looking me over for more scrapes, I stumbled upstairs and into bed, falling asleep nearly instantly.


	6. Chapter 6

Dean let me sleep in, at least for a few hours it seemed, possibly because he felt bad about the bandages on my head. I rolled out of bed and peeled the bandages off, touching my head. It was still sore, but it didn't feel like it was bleeding any more. I quickly ate some sort of oatmeal filled with honey Dean gave me before leaving the house, heading back towards the library with my high elvish book in hand. Picking my way through the streets, I wasn't surprised to see that my tails weren't anywhere to be seen. When Morley takes care of something, he's very thorough. I shook my head as I walked into the library, worried that there'd be even more deaths before this was through. 

The bruises and indignities I suffered yesterday were eased by the smile Linda Lee gave me. The smile faded as I handed her money back to her.

“It was a bust, guy was just going to use you to get into the library and rob you blind. Got a bit knocked up for it, but he knows to not try and mess with you again,” I said, attempting to appear noble, having slain a foul demon for the maiden fair.

“Damn it to hell! Ugh, thank you Garrett,” she said, still looking fair even when she cursed up a storm. She started to turn away before I coughed slightly, getting her attention again. She looked confused for a moment before the fire inside turned on. “Oh! I haven't found you any other books, I'm sorry. I've been looking, it's just slow with everything boxed up.”

I smiled at her, patting her on the shoulder. “It's okay. I've found one myself, but it's written in Ancient elvish. Know anyone who can translate it for me?” I asked, handing her the book. I knew she could read a bit of high and low elvish, but that wouldn't help if it was written in such Ancient elvish that it baffled Morley.

She studied the book for a moment before handing it back to me. She seemed to ponder the question, worried. “Weeelll...one of the sorcerers on the hill might know it. I'm sorry Garrett.”

I frowned. She knew I hated the hill and the troubles that came with it. Troubles always came with it. I didn't want to go back to the hill. I didn't want to go near the hill. Every major job as of late took me up that forsaken place, climbing into circles I didn't want to climb, didn't even want to be near. At least I knew this was a major job now, didn't I? Morley would owe me for this.

I gallantly kissed Linda Lee's hand before bidding her farewell, making my way towards Morley's place first. Perhaps he'd know better than I which of our ruling lords and ladies would be able to translate the ancient elvish gibberish I found in my possession. 

Morley's place was filled to the gills with dark elves of various shades, crowding out most of the regulars. Looking over the crowd, I didn't recognize any of them. Seemed like they were making their displeasure of the recent goings known, in the most politely dark elven way possible, by running Morley's staff ragged with orders. Morley himself was nowhere to be seen. In the midst of the confusion I made my way upstairs, opening the door to Morley's office.

Morley was sitting behind the desk, frowning at what appeared to be the loveliest dark elven woman I had ever seen. Long pitch black hair cascaded down her back, braided into an intricate pattern. She had long eyelashes, and was looking at me like she had seen a steak for the first time her her life, her eyes nearly glowing with terrible promises.

Morley made a soft sound, snapping me out of my reverie. He was not pleased. His features look almost feral, in fact, even if the rest of him was dressed to high heaven.

The woman smirked at me as though she was sharing a secret with his herself, brushing past me as she made her way out the door and downstairs, pulling the door closed behind her. As the door clicked, I swallowed multiple times, sitting down on the seat she had just vacated.

“Don't Garrett. She's literally death. What do you need?” My eyes lingered on the door a bit longer before sighing. If Morley called her death, I'm sure it was the truth.

“Do you know anyone who can translate the ancient elven book? Linda Lee suggested someone on the hill might know, but I'm not sure who that could be.”

Morley's already slightly pallid complexion became even worse as he groaned. “Yes, actually. I might have a... “date” up there tonight. Don't you dare smirk.” I had never seen him embarrassed by whoever he went on dalliances with, so I was pretty sure he was still annoyed with my ogling of his fair dark elven lady.

I smirked anyway. I couldn't help myself, it was just too amusing to pass up. “You were crazy enough to woo one of the sorceresses?”

Morley looked at me like I had grown a third head. “I can be foolish, but I'm not suicidal, Garrett. I was just crazy enough to woo one of their daughters. Luckily for the both of us, her dear mother is out in the country somewhere, delving some ancient dungeons. Seems the norm for her, according to her lovely daughter.” Must be lovely indeed, if Morley was willing to go up the Hill to meet her tonight.

Ferromancers, on the whole, didn't really like city life. They all had their mansions and places on the hill out of respect of their craft, but they generally were never seen in the city on a day to day occurrence. The only time I had actually seen one was a few months ago during the parades for the winning of the war. Perhaps it was Morley's girl's mother, perhaps not. All I knew was they were terrifying, the very earth shook as they walked by. Hard to tell gender when they all wear long robes and masks though.

“So the daughter can translate ancient elvish?” I said, raising an eyebrow. Seemed unlikely.

“No, but her mother employees a personal translator for books she finds in her travels. Luckily for us, she keeps the translator at home when she explores and just sends the books back. So you can talk to her while I...talk with the daughter,” he said, grinning toothily. I grinned back, nodding. It was a good enough plan. And it would mean we were welcomed there, most likely. Morley wouldn't travel up there unless he either had a good way of sneaking in, or better yet, a letter welcoming him. And what a letter it was, covered in glittering golden letters. It even smelled of lavender and vanilla.

I started to make my way to the door before Morley shook his head. “Let's take the back way,” he said, pushing on the wall behind him. I blinked as the wall swung backwards, revealing a dark and narrow passage. I hadn't ever seen that before, but I suppose it made sense for him to have one. Could never be too careful in any of his lines of work, after all. I went in first, turning a bit to watch as he closed the door behind the two of us. It closed seamlessly, leaving us in pitch dark. 

“I can't see in the dark like you,” I said as I started to stumble forward.

“Should have thought of that before going first,” he said with a chuckle. A moment later though a sputter light flared up. I glanced over my should. He had lit a candle, handing it forward to me. I thanked him before walking forward slightly more confidently, picking my way down the stairs. I guess he needed to have some light ready for any human woman he might have over that needed a quick escape.

“I don't bring them through here,” he said, seeming to read my mind. “There's a different staircase down the end of the hall they use if they want something more discrete, it just goes behind the bar. This goes further.”

“No shit,” I said, as we were still walking further than I thought was possible. The stairs had ended, leaving us walking through narrow passages. We had gone through a few different doors, each one Morley locked behind us. We finally started walking upstairs again. Morley pressed past me, pressing me against the wall briefly, blowing the candle out. 

“Hurry up, would you? I can barely breath,” I grumbled. He was still pushing me against the wall with his weight in the narrow hall, fumbling with the lock in front of his. He seemed unconcerned about the closeness of the situation before he finally unlocked the door, swinging it open. We were in a small flat, a single room filled with...well, nothing. It was completely empty, save for a lantern on the wall, and a rug in the centre of the room. “A hide away?”

“No, we use it for storage if the bar is full,” Morley said. I wasn't quite sure if I believed him, although what he said was believable enough. I had seen the storage area for the restaurant, it wasn't all that large. I could see him getting a slightly too large shipment of rutabagas and needing to store them some place else before he could pawn them off on the shmucks that ate there.

“Why is it so far away?” I said as we hit the street, walking up towards the hill.

“Because it was cheaper that way?” Morley said, as patiently as possible. I didn't really feel like arguing how there had to be cheaper storage areas closer to the Palms. We were too close to the hill to feel like arguing for the time being.

We managed to get to the Ferromancer's house without any hassle, which surprised me. We should have seen at least one patrol or two. Despite Morley's reputation, they'd have been quite willing to throw him out if they saw him. They were paid enough to do so. Not to mention the ever present threat of death by sorcery hanging over their heads.

The house fit in well with it's neighbours, all dark and ominous, plain stone work. Morley grinned at me as he pulled a small gold key from his pocket, opening the gate for the two of us to stroll in.

And stroll in we did. I glanced around the yard, noting that it was surprisingly bare of any grass. A manicured lawn was usually seen as a sign of wealth this high up, so to see one without any grass was a bit odd. I supposed the Ferromancer practised her trade out here on the lawn though, so perhaps that's why it was barren. I had seen the aftermath of a Ferromancer battle once. Huge slabs of stone and dirt sticking up at imposing angles, marring the land around it. The ground itself seemed to have been scorched back then, the dirt itself crumbly and dry. I had touched one of the slabs of dirt, taller than five of me stacked up. It had collapsed into dust, coating everything around us. The rest of the guys had disliked that, it took forever to wash to dust from our clothes.

The stones of the house were also different than I first thought, seeing them from the streets. Closer up, etchings seemed to cover every inch of every stone. Some seemed to be words, others seemed to be just elegant doodles.

“She built it herself, apparently,” Morley said as he opened the front door with the same key, gesturing I should stop gawking and go inside.

“Impressive,” I murmured. It truly was, an edifice of elemental power. Most sorcerers used their powers on more esoteric things. It was nice to see one use their abilities to build the most mundane, a shelter from which to weather the storm.

My eyebrows nearly shot into my hair as I noticed a petite young thing, wearing a rather flowery gown. She was quite the beauty, long brown hair set into soft curls, skin a healthy almond colour. She was absolutely breathtaking, no wonder Morley had been so eager to come out tonight. Maybe he finally found someone to settle down with. That would be shocking if he did. Seventy five percent of the female population in TunFaire would revolt over that though. She smiled as she saw Morley, which quickly turned into a frown as she saw me. Even her frown was lovely, cute and petite.

Morley swept across the floor, pulling her into a deep embrace. “Tilla, this is Garrett. Garrett, Tilla. Tilla, Garrett is here only to talk to ahh...Miss Sheara, was it? Yes. Sorry for not mentioning it sooner, he sprang it on me suddenly. I owe him dearly though, and must honour my debts, as you understand,” he said, smiling as radiantly as possible. She seemed as though she wanted to protest the additional person, but relented in the face of Morley's overwhelmingly persuasiveness.

She frowned at me though, pointing a hand towards a side hallway. “She'll be down there, in the library at the end of the hall. Shall we go eat...dinner, Mr. Dotes?” she said with a giggle.

I high tailed it out of there before I could watch them get even more handsy. I didn't really need to watch Morley get it on, even though I'm sure he'd love to teach me how to woo my women better. I wooed them perfectly fine. Never had a complaint before.

I opened the door at the end of the hallway, blinking as I looked inside. Blinking changed towards gaping. There had to be more books here than the royal library. Every wall was covered in books, and several free-standing bookcases were packed with books. A large rectangular table sat in the middle of the room, around which several heavy chairs stood. A single older woman sat in a chair. She looked up, pushing her glasses up on her nose.

“Are you Miss. Sheara?” I said. I expected someone even older than her, what with being apparently a dedicated translator. 

She raised an eyebrow at me, as though urging me to explain why I had interrupted her in her study.

“I was hoping you could translate something for me?” I said, hoping being straightforward would work, and that I wouldn't have to come up with more confusing lies to convince her.

She beckoned a hand impatiently. I scooted over, placing the book on the table before her.

She opened it, raising the other eyebrow as she looked it over.

“Ancient elvish? How quaint. I can translate it. Do you know how to write?” she asked, dragging some paper over, as well as an ink well.

I nodded. “Very well. I assume since you got inside, you're meant to be here. I'll translate this for you, but you need to write out what it's saying as I tell you it. My hands are cramping from all the writing I've already done,” she said, nodding at the piles of papers next to her.

I nodded, dipping the pen into the well, listening as she started to translate the book.

It was slow going, although it didn't always feel like it. She had a lovely enough voice, calm and reassuring as she translated the document. She most likely translated quite a few things in this way when the Ferromancer was home. It was several hours later when I finally looked up, noticing the room had gotten quite dark. Too dark to write. 

Sheara had already gotten up, dragging some candles off of a nearby empty bookshelf before lighting them with a small gesture and a wave of an amulet. I was surprised, you don't often see magical firestarters around except maybe in a Firelord's house. There had been rumours that a Firelord and a Ferromancer had been seen together, but such rumours were the work of the common folk, and had to be taken with a grain of salt. Or sometimes the entire bag.

I smiled wanly. “You wouldn't have any food, would you? I forgot to pack a meal for this trip.”

Her eyes sparkled in the light from the candles, amused. “We should have some in the kitchens. I can go get some if you want to stay here. Can't have you wandering around, you might trip a trap,” she said as she got up. I watched as she left, mesmerized for a moment before realizing how she must be related to the house's Lady. 

I wouldn't really wish to mess with the ladies twin sister. She might take umbrage at it. Maybe that's why she locked her away in the library. All the Lords and Ladies I had ever met were really weird to their family members. Even weirder to people that weren't family. Guess that's what you got when your family tree was more like a very short, flat bush. More like a scrub. Or one of those weird bushes in the swamps of the cantard, all prickly and filled with spikes. The fruits of those bushes were a godsend though, if you could get to them through the spikes.

My thoughts returned to the present as I looked around the library, pondering the scores of books. They seemed to range from very modern books written in Karentine and other young languages, to books that seemed to be hundreds of years old, if not longer. The vast majority were bound in leather, although I saw at least a few bound in thunderlizard leather, and even a few that had a metallic sheen. None seemed to be made from brass, much to my relief.

My curiosity got the better of me when I noticed a tome that seemed to be found in sheets of crystal, covered in golden letters.

I carefully eased the book off the shelf, running a finger along the golden script. Something about the book almost seemed to sing to me, urging me to read it. I gasped deeply before shoving the book back on the shelf, sitting down.

“Strong willpower to resist that book,” Sheara said as she set a plate of sausages and a bowl of poached pairs in front of me, setting her own plate down in front of where she was seated before, carefully moving the book out of the way.

I shifted in the seat uneasily. The book still seemed to sing, but with someone else nearby it seemed far more muted. “What does it do?”

She pursed her lips, turning to look at the tome. “A delicate book, that. Ensorcelled in ages gone by.” She seemed amused at the question. I waited. People generally like to fill the silence with more words. She didn't fail my curiosity. “It would have held you spellbound until someone found you and removed the book. You'd have died of thirst of dehydration eventually, if no one was here.” I shuddered. The thought of being held in place by magic, unable to do anything, to slowly die because some ancient evil sorcerer thought it was funny, was unappealing.

We ate in mostly silence after that, with her asking a few questions about how the city was going. It was clear she didn't get out much, so I indulged her questions, answering them to the best of my ability. I didn't know much about the political going ons, but I could at least tell her how the city itself seemed to be fairing in the aftermath of the war. Which was honestly better than I expected it to have done.

We cleared the plates off onto an empty chair before continuing to translate the text. It felt very late once we finished, myself with a sheaf of papers at least twice as big as the original book. I need to work on making my writing smaller, it seemed.

“In exchange for translating, do you think we could keep the original?” Sheara said as she placed a hand over the book as I reached for it. I frowned, thoughtful. I had paid a small fortune for the book, but without a translation, it would have been worthless. I shrugged, nodding.

“A fair trade, I'd say. I'll be leaving you, then,” I said, nodding my head at her as I opened the door to the library.

“Be careful!” she said, eyes sparkling again.

I closed the door behind me, making my way carefully back to the foyer. Morley was nowhere to be seen as I looked around the empty foyer. He could have headed home already, but that seemed very unlikely. He knew where I was, and would have told me he was leaving, at the least. Or so I hoped. Since it had already been hours, I decided maybe some sneaking around was in order. Or just looking around, since there was no one around, not even any staff. Then again, it was so late, I suspected they were all sleeping if they did exist.

I made my way up the spiralling staircase, keeping a close eye on any of these traps that had been mentioned. There didn't seem to be any on the stairs, or on the hallway leading to a plethora of doors. I shrugged as I quietly opened the first door. It was unlocked. And lead to an empty room, dusty and unused. The rest of the rooms down the hall seemed to be similar, although a few had the sleeping forms of various staff members. Even their doors were unlocked. They had too much trust in the fear of the populace and their guards. They needed to know not everyone was afraid of them. Morley would have had no qualms stealing from a place like this.

Speaking of Morley, I still didn't see him. None of the rooms looked even remotely like a room the daughter of a Lady would use. I turned down the hallway, noting one of the further rooms had light draining out from under it.

I quietly made my way to the door, carefully listening in. Pressing an ear against the door, I sincerely hoped they were done fucking. I had already caught Morley inflagrante delecto before. A memory that was worryingly the forefront of my mind at terribly random times. He'd be delighted it embarrassed me, since I'm sure he is incapable of being embarrassed.

“You don't think you're going to get out of this alive still, do you?” a female voice said. I couldn't hear the response, since it was muffled. I frowned, bending over as I looked through the keyhole.

I instantly wished I hadn't as I saw a very naked woman and dark elf, in a rather odd situation. I didn't want to get involved, not at all. I closed my eyes, breathing out very very slowly. Why Morley. Why did you go after the crazy ones, when you had so many others you could have been with. And now more terrible mental images joined the others, seared into my brain for eternity.

I thought about charging down the door before I completely pieced together what exactly was going on. I hadn't pegged Morley as being into such things, but I guess it was more for the lady. And he was all about pleasing the ladies in whatever manner they saw fit. 

But I really didn't want to spend the rest of the night here, growing more and more cold and bored by the hour, while Morley was busy getting fucked by some noble's daughter.

So I put my mouth to the keyhole.

“Morley you asshole. Hurry up and get her off, I'm cold, tired, and want to sleep in my own bed. I'd leave you behind, but I don't feel like running into a patrol without you there to get us out of it,” I said loud enough I was sure they heard me. I was even more sure when I heard the girl give a strangled yelp and start rushing around the room it sounded like, dainty feet making an awful lot of noise. “I'll be in the foyer.”


	7. Chapter 7

I walked down into the foyer, leaning against the bannister as I perused the translation. While I knew most of what the book had said in a technical sense, having written it out, I needed to get Morley's opinion on the actual content of the book. Apparently parts had been unclear, mostly because ancient elvish was a very open ended language. Useful for making loopholes in contracts and the like, more difficult for understanding it as a brutish stupid human, such as we are.

Morley eventually found his way downstairs, after a slightly longer than appropriate length of time. He had to let me wait even longer for him, of course. Couldn't just wrap things up and get going, oh no. Even when our life depended on the research Garrett was doing, oh no!

Morley grinned at me, completely unruffled at the annoyance I was throwing at him mentally. He looked only slightly dishevelled, in the that way that drove women even more wild. I was never sure how he pulled that off. When I was dishevelled, mothers tried to hide their children from the scary brute man that was wandering the streets. I grunted at him as we left the building, handing over the sheaf of papers.

He looked at it curiously, flipping through some of the pages. “You need to read that over, Morley. I transcribed it, so I was listening, but apparently a lot of it got weird with words and sentence structures and oddly laced euphemisms for things. I'd think an elf would have a better time understanding what the author might have meant.” He nodded at me before folding the papers up, tucking them under his arm as we made our way down the hill.

Our luck didn't hold as well as it had when we went up the hill. A patrol found us on the way out. They seemed to be loaded up on weaponry, but looking it over it seemed like it was only the normal amount. No extras and no overt magic on them. So they weren't on high alert or skittish. Which was lucky. They looked like they were itching to knock the two of us off, but Morley flashed them the letter he had brought before. One of the younger guys in the group looked like he wanted to argue about why they were letting us go, but the lead patrol-man took him aside as we strolled away. I could just barely hear him explaining exactly what a Ferromancer could do if they got mad. Had Morley's girl written up a fake letter posing as her mother? Oh my. Courting disaster there, she was, unless her mother was a lot more lax about punishment than every other sorceress I had met. It seemed unlikely.

We spent the rest of the trip talking about what he planned on doing if he managed to find the item for the dark elves. We both knew giving over a legitimate artefact to the dark elven lords was a very bad idea. If it was even vaguely possible to be used for a weapon, it was highly likely they would use it against our fair city rulers. And while neither of us cared if the rulers died or not, it would also destroy the rest of the city, either through the fighting that would occur from the collapse of power, or just physically destroy the city itself. And both of us quite liked the city being intact, seeing as we lived here. Didn't really want to move shop. We couldn't come up with a decent solution by the time I made it home, so we decided to table the discussion for later.

Dean had turned the fireplace on in my room for me, I noticed, as I wearily crawled into bed. The room was cosy, dark, and warm, and I fell asleep nearly instantly, if it weren't for the terrible mental images of Morley from earlier. But even those fled after some time, and I fell into a dark and bitter dream.

At first, I thought I was back in the marines. Marching along with a regiment, the sound of battle far ahead, swords and shields and acrid smoke. As we continued forward, it became readily apparent we were not in the war I knew. Grim faces were squeezed into military uniforms I had never seen before except in old paintings, all blacks and reds. Not to mention we seemed to be on solid ground, no where near the islands I had fought on. To be fair, we sometimes fought on the coastlines and shores on the Cantard. But this wasn't that, no. There was no smell of sea water, no scent of salt water anywhere in the air. Just dirt and grass and blood and death, with the cloying smell of burning silver.

No, this was something else. There had been no sorcery in the islands, not so much as that you could smell it, at least. No, this was something far older, far more ancient.

Faint forms flickered around as we sped up, hitting the front just as peels of thunder shook over head. Lightning and thunder started as rain cascaded down. We drew our swords as if though in a trance, fighting left and right, swords and shields clashing against others, some with spears, some with daggers. I couldn't even see the faces of those we fought, they seemed almost obscured by time itself, a deadly red mist settled around their forms as they danced through our ranks, slicing people up and down.

I stumbled as a dagger slide between my shoulder blades. It was so sharp I couldn't even feel it until I was spinning around, landing in the grass and dirt with a thud. Everything was hazy. Looking up, a sharp, pointed face smiled down at me, calmly, quietly. Before I closed my eyes I saw massive door set into the nearby mountain, parts of it twisted and running with molten steel, bloody markings, and torn off copper letters. I closed my eyes as I realized what the mountain was, exhaling quietly.


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up with a start, light streaming through the window. I nearly screamed as I saw a pointed face above me, twisting and turning in the bed trying to scramble out of it before falling out of the bed completely, bound up in the blankets like a stuff sausage. Morley laughed as I disentangled myself, grumbling as I did so.

“Sneaking up on a guy like that could get you killed one day,” I said as I threw the blankets back onto the bed. Dean would sort them out later, maybe. Today was washday. Maybe, I never remembered if it was or not.

“It's usually what gets the other guy killed,” Morley said, still grinning. My lumbering antics had greatly amused him, it seems. Big old brutish Garrett, always good for laughs. Gotta keep my friends happy and never develop a talent for athletics, one of those bands of wandering harlequins might snap me up, never to be seen in TunFaire ever again.

We made our way down to my office. The sun was bright outside, telling me I had slept for maybe a bit too long. Long enough to make Dean mad, maybe that's why there was no breakfast waiting for me other than some bread and jam. I snagged some before going into the office itself, Morley helping himself along with me. We both sat down, Morley dropping the translated book on my desk.

“Anything interesting?” I said around a mouth of bread, so it sounded more like grumbling. The bread was fresh, still warm even. Maybe Dean wasn't that mad at me. If he was truly mad, he'd have left out some stale bread. Not that we often have stale bread, we ate it too fast. Also he'd have to put up with my whining for the next several weeks about stale bread. And whining about spending all my money on not stale bread. He really couldn't win, I guess. I decided to forget that so I wouldn't look too thoughtful about my living companions, instead looking up at Morley.

Morley chewed the bread slowly before swallowing. “Yeah. Weird book, that. First hand account of a soldier turned grave robber. More than just a bit of a sin since he was robbing graves of his own species. Claims he was damned for it.”

I nodded. I remembered that when I was writing it down.

“The issue with damned here is that it can also just mean embarrassed, or the like. So it could just be he tried to rob graves, fucked up, and then felt he had to go atone for the rest of his life. Or he could have literally been damned by our forefathers. He's being vague.” I managed to hold my tongue and not comment on how that could literally apply to all elven communication. It seemed a pastime with them, being as vague as possible. “He talks about some of the things he stole though, before going on this quest of redemption and returned it all. He's vague again if he took any artefacts. The fact that he saw them though, makes me think they simply still might be there.”

The cogs started turning in my head. They were a bit rusty from disuse, as the Dead Man would say. “Does this mean we're going to have to go into the ruined city?” I really didn't want to do that. I had read the other books, they were all about how the city was trapped to the gills, filled with the ghosts of those elves who hadn't moved on yet. Although after three hundred years, the ghosts might have finally gone to rest, and the traps might have decayed. Maybe. Elves tended to plan for the long term, for both these things.

“Don't worry Garrett. I'll look and see if we can get more information before planning this out. We actually have something worse that happened, hence why I'm here!” He was smiling too broadly. I knew he was about to needle me over something or other. I opened my mouth to defend myself, but he was just too fast. “You come over all the time just to ask me for my help, I've decided this is the month of asking you for your help!” I frowned at him. I did not just go to ask him for help. I also went over to visit him! Then ask him for help.

“Puddle's disappeared, Garrett. From the looks of it, some upstarts decided to do it. Unconnected to this thing, although who knows, maybe it is connected. I'd like your help finding him while I get some of the other boys together. Mostly because he was last seen outside the Bledsoe. And you'd fit in there better than anyone else,” he said, still grinning. There was a faint outline of worry around his eyes though. If someone had managed to incapacitate Puddle, there might be more than just normal trouble there. Puddle was a hard man to knock out.

Morley was out the door, thanking me for agreeing before I realized I hadn't actually agreed to go to the Bledsoe. I tried shouting for him, but it was too late. I gritted my teeth. I didn't want to go to TunFaire's most beloved hospital. If Puddle was there, it might be too late. Then again it was unlikely Puddle was in there. If he was, I'm sure Block would have mentioned it.

I grabbed a coat before heading out, as the sky was already overcast. I hoped on my lucky stars that I wouldn't have to go grave robbing to help Morley out. That seemed almost too far. Hopefully he could find it closer to home, because it also meant travelling by horse...

The weather held the entire time I got to the Bledsoe, only opening up with the first smatterings of rain as I walked through the front gate. They had been working overtime here also, it seemed. Construction scaffolding, various additions added. The Prince was pushing hard lately, getting a lot of projects done. I'd be concerned as to how they were paying, but I knew the Cantard was likely pulling in a lot of money. The builders and buyers and scavengers were likely having the time of their life out there, cleaning out the dens and others things, paving the way to a united Karentine, filling their purses and our royal family's as well.

None of the people seemed to question me as I walked through the hallways before finding Block's office. He wasn't in at the time, which seemed unusual. He made a point of working constantly. Made me worried that something weird was happening in the city. I made myself at home, flopping down in his guest chair and rest my feet against the table. The room looked exactly as it always did, which was reassuring sometimes. Other times it was almost scary how boring it was.

My rest was short lived as I heard someone stumble into the room behind me. Craning my head back, I saw Block. Or, I saw an upside down one. He seemed to be neither pleased nor annoyed that I was there. I took that as a good thing. If he was pleased, he'd be putting me to work. If he was annoyed, he'd be putting me to work also.

“What do you need, Garrett?” Interesting. I'd have thought he already knew why I was here. His face looked pained as he sat down.

“I need to know where Puddle is.”

Block tilted his head, frowning. “Go ask Morley?”

“Morley doesn't know where he is.”

Block sort of sighed, rubbing his face. “If I tell you, will you leave?” Aha, I had managed to annoy him by existing. A good thing to learn how to do. Maybe I could be so annoying he'd stop sending people to check up on me.

I shrugged nonchalantly. “I suppose I could do that for my good friend Block.”

“Last we saw him, he was outside here, he had been meeting someone kept inside. Some breeds came up to him, started talking. He left with them peacefully, heading towards the docks.” I frowned. I had left quietly? He wasn't the sort to not make a scene if a scene required it. Which meant they had told him something that made him want to come.

I nodded slowly as I took my feet off his desk, standing up. “Garrett? Do me a favour and if things get messy down there, please clean it up yourself? Some of my guys are complaining about finding stuff in your friends wakes...”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “I can't control what Puddle or Morley does any more than I can control the forces of nature. If I could, I wouldn't be doing this. Damn, if I could even vaguely convince Morley of what to do, I'd be set for life.”

Block looked pained for a moment, wooden chair squeaking as he stood up. We shook hands cordially as I made my way out of his office and the Bledsoe. None of his men stopped me on the way out, which I was grateful for. I was always ever so slightly nervous one of them would get the crazy idea in their head that I worked for Block. I'd have to knock heads together if anyone ever though that. A terrible idea for everyone involved. Mostly because I don't take to other peoples authority all that well.

I nearly took the head off of the guy who tapped me on the shoulder gently, swinging my head knocker around. Luckily for him, he was far too quick on his feet, prancing out of the way as my head knocker hit the stone of the building nearby. A few people looked at me, annoyed. How dare I sully up the beautiful stonework, that totally wasn't ugly and crumbling already.

“Did you find anything out?” Morley said, smiling at my attempt to knock him out. He was never perturbed by my attempts to kill him. Guess he knew I could never do it on purpose.

“Some breeds convinced him to go to the docks,” I mumbled, putting my head knocker away. I didn't want to walk into whatever trap Puddle had willing walked into. But damned if I was going to let Morley lose his right hand man. He might get stupid ideas and try and press gang me into working for him. I couldn't stomach that work full time, not to mention there's no way I'd work for Morley any more than I'd work for Block.

Morley looked thoughtful. Almost pensive. “We've been having issues with some breeds trying to muscle in before, but nothing we couldn't handle. Strange that they'd come out of the wood work now. Do you think it has anything to do with the other thing?”

I blinked, trying to piece together what he said. “Oh. Uh, I doubt it.”

Morley still seemed a bit worried, but dropped it quickly enough. “You're right, I doubt they'd kidnap Puddle just because he roughed up a few guys on Spud's behalf.” I gave him the side eye. It was a bit more than just roughing them up. But since they weren't related to anyone important, I guess they didn't matter. Which was how the world worked, these days. It was who you knew, who you were born to, that got you the furthest. Even if though we were more socially upward than some other societies, there'd always be that nepotism. It's why I certainly didn't want to work for the crown or anyone under it. Even if I was the absolute best at my job, some wet behind the ears young fool would come in, and start telling me what to do because his third uncle once removed or something was a duke or earl somewhere.

Our footsteps turned from quiet steps to more wet steps, the weather turning slightly worse as we hit the dock area. There was no sign of struggles, no blood, nothing to indicate Puddle had gotten into a hit. When Puddle fought, he knew he was fighting. He never did anything like that half assed.

The soft sound of small raindrops hitting the water echoed around as we started to slink around the buildings and storehouses, spreading out slightly but always staying in sight of each other. Neither of us felt like being thrown unconscious into the water that night. 

Angling myself slightly, I stared through the wooden slots of one of the more rickety looking buildings. The dim, smoky light of some kind of noxious oil lamp filled the room, obscuring most of the few. I could make out what appeared to be some people with a very hefty amount of troll blood in them seated around a large wooden table, as well as the fairly distinct form of Puddle. I quietly motioned for Morley to join me.

Morley looked through the slots before his face twisted into something almost akin to anger, or maybe annoyance. It was really hard to tell those two emotions apart on an elf, especially in the dark. Had Puddle betrayed Morley? Shit, if things were about to go down, I wanted nothing to do with them. The going bets for who'd win that fight were currently trending towards no one coming out alive, with a heavy side of major collateral damage.

I wasn't able to express my concern before Morley was opening the door, strolling in like he owned the place. I also recognized maybe a bit late his posture had absolutely no anger in it at all. Just faint annoyance at being dragged away from what he been doing. Or who.

Puddle looked up from the table, face instantly falling. “Oh, uh, hi dere boss?” he said, sucking on his teeth. Now that I got a closer look, it seemed like him and the trollish were playing a card game of some kind. Not one I had had any experience with. Some variation or other of one of the many games people played.

“You left no letter, disappeared right after the trouble with Spud, why must you worry me so?” Morley said, sounding nearly exactly like an old matronly woman. The only difference is that he'd never lose his looks when he started to have kids. He claimed sometimes he already had some. The thought of Morley running around, all domesticated was absolutely hilarious. I started to chuckle, the other guys joining me as I did so. Puddle shot me a dirty look as he stood up, placing his cards face down on the table.

“I told you weeks ago I was going to be busy this week. You even wrote it down!” Puddle said, sounding rather defensive and slightly confused. This actually caused Morley to pause, holding up a single thin finger as he pulled a worn notebook from a pocket. Flipping through it, he raised an eyebrow. Puddle grumbled, but didn't look like he thought he was wrong. He was vindicated a moment later.

“So it seems I did. Oh well, good luck gambling, Puddle. The greenish guy twitches his ears when he's nervous,” Morley said before strolling out of the warehouse, myself following shortly thereafter. The sound of shouting in trollish followed, something about mothers and poxes.

“You brought me here because you couldn't be bothered to check your calendar?” I said through gritted teeth. The sky had opened up and had started pouring properly. I just wanted to run home and curl up in the bed, that lovely bed with thick warm blankets, and forget about Morley's existence at all. It would solve so many problems. But I was too loyal for that. I could feel myself grinding my teeth together even as I thought about abandoning him with his stupid quest. I couldn't bring myself to do that. He was the oldest friend I had, even if we both drove each other a bit nuts sometimes. Or all the time.

Morley shrugged. Of course he did. He didn't care about getting wet, it just showed off his body more. I'm sure he'd get mauled by lovely ladies on the way home just waiting to warm him up. I'd get home and get chewed out by Dean for getting wet in the first place.

“I'm going home to eat and sleep. If you find something out, send a message.” I was rightfully pissed as I stomped away, trying my best to cover my head with my hands as I made my way home. One day I'd remember to take a coat and hat with me when the seasons changed. One day.


	9. Chapter 9

It was quite the nice surprise that when I woke up the next day, I was greeted the next day by neither Dean nor Singe, but Linda Lee instead. The happiness was dashed slightly by the fact she was still (already?) dressed. And the fact she looked sort of annoyed.

“To what do I owe the honour of you in my bedroom, my lovely Linda Lee?” I said, dragging my only slightly aching body out of bed. I tried to give Linda Lee a look as I got dressed, but she wasn't having any of it this morning. Quite a sad occasion, then. 

She chewed on her lip for a moment, turning it over in her head. She had the time to, as the Dead Man was asleep, and I was only just waking up myself. I sat down on the edge of the bed as she paced back and forth in front of the window, casting odd shadows about.

“I need you to do another job. Apparently there actually is someone out there with books we've been looking for centuries for the library. They sent proof, legitimate proof Garrett!” she said. She seemed torn between being upset and being excited as she handed me some sheets of very old paper. I gently laid them out of the bed, studying them.

They were old, old paper and vellum, some illuminated, some not. They all looked genuine to me, as though they were only just ripped out of the books they came from. I raised an eyebrow at her as she scooped them all back up quickly, making them neater.

“Garrett, the library is willing to pay a small fortune for these books. I convinced them to let me come to you first, because anyone else who went to get them and found out what they were would likely sell them rather than hand them over to us. We can't pay what they'd cost to get them, and the Prince isn't willing to put a martial law into effect for the books,”

“Since that would start a small war.”

“Yeah. So will you help me, Garrett? The guys are trying to charge us even more than a small fortune, and we just can't do that,” she said, practically turning on the faucet of that very unique strain of appeal that made you want to help and protect. She didn't even wait for an answer.

“Great! Thank you Garrett, you're a godsend. The only thing we know is that several of the books came in through the shipping district.” I groaned. More time near the docks. At least the shipping district itself was slightly further in than the docks themselves. Maybe I would avoid getting my feet and face and skull wet. “I'll leave the money in...his room, okay?” she said, before traipsing out of the room. I nodded absently at her retreating form, admiring it as it flounced about.

Once again there was only some leftover bread in the kitchen, although this time there were some rapidly cooling sausages along with them. No sight of Dean or Singe. I was slightly suspicious that maybe they both decided to abandon me to my fate, as well as the Dead Man. But if they had, why would they keep making me breakfast and dinner? Maybe they were just showing their discontent at Morley showing up so much these last few days. I had thought Dean had finally accepted him, but maybe he had decided against it.

I shrugged as I rolled out of the house, grabbing a coat and hat just in case it decided to rain again.


	10. Chapter 10

The sun shown over head, mocking me as I walked down towards the docks, the brim of the old hat I had scrounged up doing less to shade my eyes than my own hand could have done. A few people made amused comments on the state of my apparel before whispering quieter when I shot them a few glares.

I threw the hat into a gutter a few blocks later when I actually hit the shipping district, inhaling deeply. The entire place smelled of tanning hides, rotting fish, and everything else under the sun. It was a unique smell, one that made your stomach turn and wish for sweeter smells. Even though there was plenty of those here too, wine and flowers and pretty baubles, the stench outweighed any of the more delicate notes.

I fit in quite well down here, no one giving me a second look. Several of my very old cases had me chasing people or things down here, once even helping someone flee from the city out on a ship to elsewhere.

But that was a long time ago, and she was far from the city. And her husband hadn't figured out I was the one to help her get out.

The brick buildings loomed over me, some in more disrepair than others. I tried to think of where one would keep a box or two of ancient books down here that wouldn't quickly become covered with mold, pondering the possibilities. There were a few warehouses that traded in more delicate trades, which would be a place to start at least. If they weren't there, maybe someone there would know.

It was easy enough to find them, as people were carting out boxes filled with some odd gauzy looking fabric, bound in strips of heavy canvas. I watched them from nearby for a bit, trying to think of who the best person to talk to was. My careful plans were disrupted when one of them set his box down on the nearby cart, strolling over to me. It took me just as long as it took for him to open his mouth to remember who he was.

“Garret, right? You looking for a job down here or something?” I had known him back in the marines, although he wasn't a marine himself. He was army, stationed in Liefmold, a cushy job, guy named Brettin. He had seen combat before though, and had lost a leg to it. Through a miracle of magic and a healthy dose of good luck (and possibly a healthy dose of troll blood somewhere in him way back) he managed to survive losing his leg, using a wooden one these days. It looks like he had even gotten an upgrade between when I had lost seen him and now, the wood looking like it was almost grown onto his leg. He must have met with one of those fancy elven tree talkers out in the country somewhere. I was impressed.

“Nah, but I'm looking for which warehouse could be transporting a bunch of books,” I said after telling him how much I admired the new hardware. He seemed proud of the new leg, leaning against the wall with me as we both watched the other guys work.

“I haven't heard of a shipment of new books, but if some came in underground, well...” he said, trailing off as he rubbed his fingers together.

I also remembered while he was a generally good guy, he also liked coin. The leg couldn't have been cheap, after all.

I slipped him a few coins, which he nodded at with appreciation before making them disappear into a pocket.

“There's been rumours down here of some dangerous books coming in. Not sure how a book could be dangerous, unless they were laced with gunpowder and exploded when you tried to burn them.” He light a cigar, offering me a puff of my own. I declined. I couldn't stand the taste of them myself usually, they always tasted of wet earth. I understood the appeal though, they could smell incredibly delicious. I wondered if Brettin was skimming some goods from shipments to pay for his lifestyle. I shrugged, not my job to find out if he was currently.

He blew a cloud of smoke out, pondering the sky. “Getting dark. Right, if they were bringing in books, and not saying they are, of course, they'd be down in the abandoned military warehouse, closer to dwarf quarter.” I nodded, slipping him one last coin as I left. He nodded, stubbing out the cigar as he got back to work, wooden leg making a soft tac sound as he walked along the cobblestones.

I wove through the buildings, before finding myself in front of one of our old military shipping buildings. With the war over, several of these buildings laid abandoned. But not sold, since after all we could see another war. We had to stay on our toes, or something. I'm sure it was more a way for the generals that were still in the army to justify their costs, keeping buildings open so they could put down more charges in their expense reports. The symbol of the navy of Karentine hung above the door, metal tarnished and faded.

I listened in for awhile, trying to hear if there was anyone around. The sound of silence greeted my ears even as I did a thorough look over of the building. Perhaps they only came out to move books in the dead of night. Didn't want to accidentally read them and summon something from the depths of the oceans, or something.

I tried the front doors. I couldn't be as lucky as I hoped to be, the doors locked tight. Peeking through the cracks of the wood, I saw they were securely fastened with several chains and ropes. I'd need another way in.

Looking over the building a second time, I noticed there were several small windows high up the side of the warehouse, allowing air to circulate if the warehouse was used for any of the more noxious trades like tanning. I might be able to shimmy through one, if I could reach it. A few calculated jumps proved I could just grab the edge of the windowsill, although it was close.

I took as much of a running jump that I could, grabbing onto the windowsill. I dragged myself inch by inch through the window, squirming before sliding through, flopping and falling onto my back on the other side. I managed to not shout from the pain as my back hit the floor, if barely. I knew I'd be aching in the morning. 

I cracked open an eye and looked around the dark room. It was an open building, one giant room filled with several dozen boxes. There were two smaller rooms at the back, more like tiny offices, possibly for recording where things were coming and going to. Most of the boxes seemed to be empty, although even if the darkness I could tell there were a few filled with something blocky looking. I sincerely hoped it was blocky looking books. Blookies? Block books?

I shook my head as I stood up, trying to regain my sense. I noticed an oil lamp on the nearby wall, shuttered and dark. I carefully lit it and held it up, looking through the first full box.

Bingo. These were certainly books. Unfortunately, it didn't look like most of them were the books Linda Lee wanted. They seemed to be more modern books, concerning some boring subject about tax evasion and criminal activities. I moved the books around as I scrounged deeper, setting the lamp to the side.

By the luck of the stars above, Linda Lee's precious books were at the bottom of one of the piles, in a box of their own. It looked like whoever had packaged them had packaged them with care, hoping to make the most money possible off of them. I quickly picked up the box, looking for a way out that wasn't the front door.

My blood turned cold as I heard scuffling from the front. I ducked into one of the tiny offices. Looking around, it was barely bigger than a closet. It held another window at the top. I breathed in deeply before climbing on the desk in the room that took up most of the space, praying it would hold me. I gently as possible tossed the closed up box out the window before jumping up. The table broke underneath me.

I heard shouting from the other room as I hauled my ass through the window, dropping down as the door opened up, light flooding behind me. I grabbed the box of books and hauled ass out.

The sound of feet and lanterns behind me urged me forward faster until I was home, panting from taking several detours, shaking most of the people behind me. I managed to open my front door with the key, slamming it shut behind me as I dropped the box in the Dead Man's room. It seemed to be undamaged, although I'm sure Linda Lee would find something wrong with the books. I'd just blame it on the smugglers.


	11. Chapter 11

Dean wasn't there to admonish me, although there was still some stew on the stove. I shrugged as I ate the rest of it, sopping up the liquid with some fresh bread before going to bed. It was far too late to bring the books to Linda Lee, that would have to wait till tomorrow. Tonight was time for sleeping off the pain of strenuous activity. I was just glad despite how often Morley had been dropping in he hadn't been nagging me about my lack of fitness. Then again, he was likely gloating on the inside now, imagining how much pain and stress he was putting me in.

I curled up into bed and fell asleep, ignoring the scrapes for the time being. The warmth of the bed soothed me into a false sense of security, tricking me into think I would have a quiet night of sleep ahead.

It was pretty much the same dream as last night, only closer inside the city. Plumes of smoke and ash swirled around me, making me cough into one billowing robe of the sleeve I wore. The sound of lightning and thunder roared around me, summoned by magics older than I. The doors behind us were slagged off completely, rivulets of metal, earth, and blood mixing on the ground. My feet crunched the mixture underneath, the sound of it feeling distant, almost ethereal. 

I was urged onwards by some grim determination. I could hear shouts ahead, the cries of those slain by traps and tricks. I raised my hands and called down fire before everything turned red.

I woke with a start, sweating. The fireplace had managed to stay lit the entire night, but today was far too warm for it. I practically peeled myself out of bed, grimacing as the sheets were absolutely soaked with sweat. I didn't like what these dreams suggested. I was no soothsayer or fortuneteller, but I could tell ill omens when they happened to me. Since they happened to me a lot.

I was relieved to find the books were safely in the Dead Man's room when I went to retrieve them, taking them and myself out the door to deliver them as quickly as possible.


	12. Chapter 12

It was such a lovely day outside, I took my time getting to the library. Partly to admire the weather, partly because everything ached and I wanted to take the time. My good mood evaporated as I got closer to the library. Smoke was coming off the building, obscuring the sky above. I rushed into the building, slightly relieved to see it was still structurally sound. Linda Lee was sitting in the middle of the library though, wailing. 

I placed the box down gently beside her as I sat down, wrapping arms around her.

“They fire bombed the place, Garrett! It's a mess!” she said, between sniffles. She pulled a handkerchief from my pocket, wiping her nose on it. I patted her on the back.

“How many books were lost?” I asked gently. It looked to me like most of them were fine or in boxes still. She stopped sniffling for the moment, breathing in deeply.

“Luckily not many of them. Some of them are likely smoke damaged, but we won't know how many until much later. It's just set back the repair times immensely, and made the Prince upset.” I nodded. She was over worried, again. If most of the books were fine, especially ones down in the basement, I was sure it was a minor thing. Now, if the books had been out, it might have been a bigger issue, but it was quite fortunate they had them packed away for the time being.

“Oh Garrett! Did you find the books?” she said when she finally stopped sniffling, handing me my handkerchief back before plunging into the box of books. She practically squealed as she took them out, opening them carefully. She then boxed them back up, pushing them out of the way. Workers had started to come in to clean the library, and she needed to keep an eye on them.

I smiled even as she forgot about me, directing the workmen, ordering them around so they wouldn't hurt her precious books. She would be busy for quite some time. While I could distract her now, she'd just be annoyed later on. It wouldn't be worth it, not today.

So I waltz back outside, intent on taking advantage of the last burst of nice weather.


	13. Chapter 13

The nicer weather was rapidly degrading as I left the library, much to my chagrin. I was distracted temporarily by a rather fancy shop nearby. I hadn't noticed it before, or perhaps it hadn't opened yet the last time I took this route home. 

While store fronts were common in the city, ones with large, clear glass panels were not. I guess some people were taking advantage that the war was over, and felt more secure buying such expensive things. My own windows had long been since bricked up, as most were. No one wanted to spend the coin on a window if it was just going to get destroyed.

These people did. And it had attracted a fair crowd. I was curious, and so gently pushed my way to the front, ignoring the crowds. I raised an eyebrow as I looked in the windows.

Piles and piles of cakes and pies and cookies were stacked in a whimsical display, some elvish name above the door. A bakery. We had bakeries in the city, but nothing so fancy. They served bread or other hardy meals for a city in the midst of war.

This was a shop meant for peace though. Delicious, painfully sweet peace. The doors were open, but it wasn't actually very busy inside. It seemed more people were content to look at the sweets, than buy them. I didn't doubt they'd cost an arm and a leg though. You didn't make something that fancy without a lot of work and even more sugar.

I decided to throw caution to the window however, and entered the store. The woman behind the counter was an older human looking type, although with just enough elvish in her to give her a slight point to her ears. Not enough to outweigh the plump matronly look she had going on. I had never seen a plump wifely look elf, but I'm sure they existed somewhere.

She smiled at me. I smiled widely back at her. I was pleasantly surprised, as I sort of expected her to be cold to me. I knew I didn't look like the type to go out and buy sweets, a tall, ruggedly handsome guy such as myself must only consist on meat and beer.

“What can I get you dear?” she asked, voice as sweet as honey. The entire place would have rotted by very being from how saccharine it was, and yet, it was just all too kind and genuinely nice.

I looked over the cases inside. Even more glass, cleaned to a sparkling shine. Someone was paying through the nose for this place. I had a suspicion that this might be someone on the hills shop, or more accurately, someone powerful on the hill had a board wife or daughter who wanted to pretend to do something, and so they just gave them a store to keep them busy. Nice enough area, all the glass, and something one of our more careful businessmen wouldn't attempt. No one would accuse them of trying to run a bakery around sweets and sugar.

“Everything just looks so pretty! Are you the baker?” I asked with a smile. She shook her head. “We have a pair of siblings that does the baking in the back,” she said, nodding towards the back. A flash of dark hair peeked out from behind the door. I tried to wiggle my eyebrows at them, but they disappeared too fast. I almost commented on what a shame it was that such a pretty young thing was stuck behind the doors baking, but discretion finally smacked me in the head.

“How about a box of whatever you think would be the best today?” I said with a smile. She perked up even more, bustling around as she filled the box.

When she gave me the total, I was surprised, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It was fairly reasonable, even. They had someone with a good sense of numbers working for them.

I took the pale white waxy box out as we exchanged farewells, dipping outside just as the sky turned a darker shade of grey.

“How's the prices?” a soft voice said. I looked down, noticing a young boy. I smiled at him, pulling a coin from my pocket. 

“Cheap enough to get you one,” I said before trotting off. I felt slightly flushed, pleased with having helped out Linda Lee, knowing the city paid well enough to justify this splurge.


	14. Chapter 14

My mood held even though the weather continued to worsen steadily. Clouds were already overhead, and even the faintest pin pricks of snow seemed to be coming down, causing my breath to fog over. I swore it must be some hoity toity sorcerer up on the hill doing some weather magic, but I knew that wasn't the case. It was just my own ill luck and TunFaire itself having mercurial weather during the season changes. I decided that holing up at home might be for the best today. I had to wait to see what Morley had found out anyway. Wasn't much more for me to search, I had exhausted my leads. If the Dead Man was awake, we'd have to discuss what the next steps would be.

So I wandered back home. I half expected my home to also be covered in flames and fires, but instead it was covered in a light dusting of snow. It look almost quaint and homey, smoke coming from the chimney, light on inside.

I opened the door, savouring the scent of fresh pumpkin pie. I hadn't even known we had pumpkins still. It was getting late in the season, I thought perhaps they were all sold out. I could count on Dean finding the last of any food product, if he felt like it.

I almost expected to not even see Dean in the kitchen, the way the last few days had been going. It felt like I was living with ghosts, they kept coming and going past me, ships in the night.

But Dean was there, pulling the pie out of the oven. He nearly dropped it as I pulled a chair out and sat at the table. He gave a slightly disapproving look as he did so. He didn't like being surprised. Guessed that's why he liked having all the locks on the front door.

He did like feeding people though, which took over as he gave me a platter of cheese and crackers. I might have whined slightly, trying to grab the pumpkin pie off the counter. Even though I could eat the sweets I had bought, I had already decided they were a gift for Dean and Singe. He swatted my hands away.

“It's still far too hot, and needs to set. Otherwise it'll be more like pumpkin soup,” he said. I rolled the idea around for a bit in my head. “I don't think I'd mind that.”

He looked thoughtful himself. “It might not be a bad idea. But it would need more savoury to counteract the sweetness...” he said before trailing off, mumbling to himself as he tried to figure out how best to make a pumpkin soup. I continued to eat the crackers and cheese, eyeing the cooling pie hungrily. Singe didn't care for pumpkin pie nearly as much, so I'd get to eat all of it myself, or nearly all. Dean might take a slice himself.

“So where have you been lately?” I asked as Dean finally gave me a slice and a mug of beer.

His face went pink. It was quite the sight. “I've been here? Have I not been taking good enough care of the house?” he said. I shook my head.

“A fine job! You've just been out a lot, it seems. Something up?” He shook his head again at this, but his face had an odd expression on it. There was something more to it.

Unfortunately Dean was as reticent as the Dead Man was. No amount of cajoling could convince him to spill the beans on why both him and Singe seemed to be avoiding the house so much the last few days. Even after telling him the sweets were a treat for him and Singe, it didn't work. I tried to figure out what could have caused it myself, but nothing had changed that I knew, other than the jobs I had taken, and both of those were perfectly normal.

I gave up as I ate a third slice of pie, mumbling about secrets and sneaky people. Dean just smiled at me, giving me a fourth slice of pie as he looked over one of the sweets from the box. I was surprised, he actually seemed to like it. He claimed it was a lot more airy than he expected it to be, and he'd try and recreate some for us later.


	15. Chapter 15

I was pleasantly surprised the next day when no one came knocking on the door. Morley had made it clear that if he had found anything out he'd come find me, and that I wouldn't have to go find him. He knew my penchant for lazing about, and I guess didn't feel like waiting for me to decide to find him was the best option.

It truly was, and yet, here we were, without a Morley in sight. 

Or anyone else for that matter, other than Dean. I didn't try and press him about why he'd been gone, since he apparently decided to come back again, and being overly helpful, even. Even more suspicious. But I decided to take it, and spent the day lazing around the house. Dean indulged me in this desire, making all my favourite foods. 

It was only after the sun had started to set that my brain, sleepy on food and beer, had decided to actually start working on the case by itself. The outlook of where I'd be required to go next for Morley looked grim to my mind, but I decided to brush them off, and fell asleep.


	16. Chapter 16

I slipped through towering hallways, the ceiling so high up it felt as though there was sky overhead, a grey and dingy sky, but I somehow knew it was only stone above, and stone for miles. I walked through the city, peeking into stalls and shops carved into the stone walls, covered in silk and silver, obscuring where we were. 

The entire mood of the area felt tense, and I felt like a ghost, slipping through as I observed preparations for some event. People were lining windows with spikes, covering them with breathtaking artwork and embroidered cloth, before dousing the cloth in pots of chemicals that smelled acrid and foul. Others carefully painted the ornate metal gates that stood between the sections of the city with oddly bright pink looking paint that seemed to fade as it dried, giving no indication that it was there. Each step through the city seemed to drag me through time as well, as more and more of the city mobilized towards some external threat. People flitted passed me, almost as ghostly as I was, each one intent on some job before them.

I finally found myself in the front of the city, in front of a massive stone statue, rising taller than I thought possible, the dark elf it portrayed looking almost worried at the gates in front of him, taller than he was. And I looked at them worried also, hearing the sound of horns outside, the sound of thunder hitting them.


	17. Chapter 17

The thunder continued until I woke up with a start, staring up at Morley for the second time in so many days. I was wondering if there had been some memo about how to wake up Garrett and give him a heart attack at the same time, and all it had said on it was “make a lot of noise then stick your face super close to his and wait”

Because that seemed to be Morley's operating mode as of late. I glared up at him, his face twitching into a smirk to be a dark mirror of mine.

“How much would it take to get you to never do that again?” I grumbled, pulling myself out of bed and dressing. I'd seen Morley naked before, I didn't really care if he saw me naked either. He didn't say anything until I grumbled at him, urging him to share whatever he found.

“So, it seems much to my chagrin, the artifact is indeed still deep inside Carathca,” he said. He grabbed my arm as I stood up, grumbling. I was not going into some ruin city infested with danger and disease. My nightmares had warned me about this.

“Garrett...” Morley said, pleadingly. I turned back towards him. It was way too early for this. Way way too early for this. 

Way too early to notice he actually looked truly desperate. His hand on my arm wasn't tight or controlling, it was almost...shaking?

I groaned and sat back down on the bed. “Fine! God Morley, what the fuck though. Carathca is fucking haunted! Do you know how fucking doomed we are?” I didn't mention that he knew exactly how to twist that knife in to get me to help. All he had to do was look lost. God, seeing Morley look so desperate was actually horrible. I hated it, and wanted it to stop. So of course, the best way was to just agree with what he wanted.

I knew exactly why I got into so much trouble when ladies came around looking for help. I didn't know Morley had been studying them just in case he needed my help also. The glint in his eye let me know he knew exactly what he was doing.

I could be mad after we got back alive. I knew he wasn't lying about needing to get the object. I just don't know why he felt like I had to go with him.

Morley perked up perceptibly. I guess anyone would, if they didn't have to go into an accursed hell hole alone.

And who knew exactly how to manipulate me without me getting mad.

“We'll be fine in regards to the curse. Any dark elf will be fine there, and I know of a witch who can outfit you with a charm that basically says ah...you're an elf friend,” Morley said, eyes darting for a moment. I didn't really like working with a witch, but I also preferred to keep all my organs inside my body. I nodded as he continued to talk.

“We can go in about two days, I already have people buying supplies for us, which includes a horse and cart Garrett. I know you hate horses, but there's no way we're getting to Carthca without a horse or several, it's a purely overland route, even the best rivers would take weeks or months to get there, but horses will only take a week at most.”

He continued to almost ramble about what supplies we'd be taking. Most of them sounded normal, although there was a lot of talk about light sources, which we'd need. Carthca would have no more natural light, except for places where the roof caved in, and those places would be dangerous, apparently.

I continued to listen to Morley as I made my way downstairs. Dean was out again, but an entire stack of still almost hot pancakes were stacked in front of me. I ate them as Morley outlined the plans.

We'd take the horse(s) and cart to outside the gates, to where Morley would deem a safe distance. He'd set them up on some grass, and then we'd start the trip inside. That's apparently where shit got nebulous fast like. The stories of curses and such were greatly exaggerated, but all we had to do was find the throne room, and there'd be some kind of room off of that with the artifacts. Or maybe in the room itself.

At least I'd have a few days of rest before going out.

So I had hoped.


	18. Chapter 18

The universe, of course, had different ideas. The next few days decided to run me back and forth between town, with the various errands split between buying supplies for the house so they'd be prepared and supplies for the trip out. I wasn't sure why they couldn't just take care of themselves while I was gone. I doubted I'd be gone for all that long anyway. We just had to go in and grab some totally not cursed artifact out of a ruined city, then leave!

Super easy stuff for two hardened adventurers such as ourselves.

One of the many errands sent myself and Morley off towards the witch who'd outfit me with some sort of special charm that would mark me as some kind of elf friend. Or dark elf friend. They were pretty much the same thing, even if both races would have argued the differences until they both turned blue. And then continued to argue as ghosts.

Her shop, so to speak, was in the more run down section of where the elven district met the quay. A dismal place, it seemed almost rude to call it a shop. An affront to upstanding shops everywhere. Notably because it was barely standing any more. The walls of the shop yawned inwards, threatening to cave in on myself and Morley at any moment. A thin veneer of luminescent slime covered the walls instead of lamps. She certainly knew how to give her shop that certain flair that made you know you just stepped into a place that could either curse your enemies into frogs, or to turn you into a frog if you upset her.

She was a short thing, looking more like a frog that a human. I hadn't heard of any sapient frog races, but there could have been. More than likely she was a breed of some kind, likely had some elven in her if Morley was using her for the spells.

She glared at me before indicating we should both sit. So we sat down on some moss covered seats. I waited for Morley to do the talking. I didn't know how this spell worked. Maybe it was a charm? I hoped it was a charm, so I could take it off when I decided to stop being an elf friend.

“So Dotes here said you're his elf friend?” she said with a grin. I swear to god even her tongue looked like a frogs tongue. I wouldn't have been even the least bit surprised if she started washing her eyeballs with it soon.

She smacked me with her hand, leaving an oddly greasy print on my pants legs. “Be good.”

“I'm trying!” I really should expect all magic users by now to just know my entire life story. It all seemed like they could read minds.

“Morley said I needed to be marked as an elf friend, sure,” I said, distracted once again as I looked over the walls. I recognized some of the magical items. I was surprised to see none of them were of an offensive nature, only of a more defensive or nurturing nature. Those didn't sell as well as charms to harm or maim, sadly. Maybe it's why her shop was threatening to cave in on itself from disrepair.

She grinned at Morley, eyes blinking slowly. “Not quite what he said, but almost the same. Let's see...” she said as she turned hopped off her chair, rummaging behind the counter. Morley's face seemed to turn to stone.

I threw a look at Morley, who seemed to be studiously avoiding my gaze, staring straight ahead at nothing. What exactly did he tell her? I didn't see any money coming from Morley, so whatever she told him seemed to be quite the tale.

She suddenly grabbed my hand as she reappeared from behind the counter, wrapping a serpentine bracelet around my hand. She waved a hand and mumbled something in elven, causing the bracelet to glow for a moment before settling on my wrist. When it was done, I almost couldn't even feel it was there unless I was focused on it.

“There! Go have fun now kids,” she said with a cackle as she shoved the two of us out of her place with more strength than I thought she'd have. If looks could kill, I was pretty sure Morley would have killed her. His self restraint was admirable, as he didn't even twitch until we hit the streets. It was more a full body shudder. 

“What did you pay her?” I asked Morley as I fiddled with the bracelet. It didn't move around my arm much, but the serpents themselves seemed to hiss when I did that. I stopped playing with the bracelet. They seemed to approve of that. I made a few faces at them before Morley gently pushed my arm down to stop be from playing with myself in public.

“I killed her husband for her. I'll see you tomorrow, early?” Morley said before disappearing, not waiting for an answer. I frowned at the leaning shack before taking off. Weird frog ladies telling jokes and weirder dark elves. At least one part of the preparations were taken care of without me having to pay like half my house for it.


	19. Chapter 19

The house was dark when I got back, not even the chimney was going. As I unlocked the door icy tendrils of smoke and fog billowed out of the door before wrapping around me, dragging me inside.

I tried to shout but the smoke quickly overwhelmed me, making me light headed and woozy.

Every step felt lighter and less distinct, as though I was floating through a cloud, or a dream made manifest. Maybe it was both.

I stumbled around the house before feeling the colour drain from my hands. I couldn't even think clearly before everything vanished in front of me. I was in the Dead Man's room. I couldn't tell what he was thinking at the moment.

I wasn't even quite sure he was actually awake right now.

“What do you want?” I said with a grumble. He almost never used his talents on me any more. We had had an understanding that he used that on people and things that weren't the ex marine that owned his house. 

Or that if he was going to use them on me, it had better be damned important and not as some sort of joke.

_Be careful, Garret._ His voice was distant and echoed, as though hearing him through a mental fog that mimicked the fog that was already dissipating around me.

My confusion turned up to elven. “What are you going on about?” The room was filled with spider webs. Dean had been putting off cleaning. I grabbed the broom from beside the door and started swatting them away, glaring at the corpulent sack of flesh. He refused to answer. Hell, it seemed like he was still asleep. I could usually tell when he was faking sleeping, but this didn't feel fake to me.

Maybe he was having the same dreams I was and he just dragged me into one? I wasn't sure how dreaming worked for Logyhr. It wasn't a terribly popular dinner table conversation.

I railed against him some more as I stocked the fireplaces up and lit them, ranting about unhelpful lazy dead bodies and the complete absence of people I paid a ton of money to exist to make my life easier. He continued to snooze, the faint shivering wisps of seeping pain echoing around the house.

I thought I had seen all I could see with a dead Lohgyr about, but he always had something new up his sleeves, as moth bitten as they were.

A dead Loghyr was worse than a ghost in those regards. When they had nightmares, they sure had nightmares it seemed. The Dead Man had actually warned me about the nightmares. He told me that sometimes when they slept for too long (how long that was exactly he didn't tell me) they could have nightmares about the past...or future. I had asked if they were a bunch of Cassandra's, but he didn't answer. Guess stories of fortune tellers weren't his thing, or maybe if he told me, then everything would get weird and the warnings wouldn't work. They weren't really my thing, but it never hurt to entertain the possibility they were true.

He continued to sleep, and sleep, even as I went to bed.

It was a dreamless sleep, somehow worse than the dreams of days before. It almost felt it was too close to the event for the dreams to have any sway. A listless sleep, filled with fog and murmuring echoes.


	20. Chapter 20

I woke up surprisingly refreshed, even after the brief dint in the underworld with a man who was refusing Charon's crossing, and refused it constantly.

He was hard at work refusing that crossing as I woke up, thin tendrils of mist worming their way into the house as he snored, the mental sound nearly deafening. Each mental shiver send imaginary mice down my spine, clattering around and awakening old memories.

I knew why Dean and Singe were no where to be found recently. I had been out and about, but if they were stuck with him. I'd have fled to friends and family also.

Well, I was planning a temporary escape myself. They had planned their own without me. I just had to hope the Dead Man calmed down and went back to his normal cheerful self and they'd be waiting at home for me with some food and a warm bed. It would be miserable to come home to an empty house after having been with a full house after this long.

No matter how much I ragged on Dean, I'd miss his cooking, and I'd miss Singe being a little ball of rat...ratly sunshine around the place. 

I just couldn't tell them that, that would break my macho and manly exterior, and that would just be a crying shame.

I'd be looking forward to that bed before long, as I trundled into Morley, the two of us already bundled up. It wasn't quite snowing yet, but the air had that distinctly winter quality, an almost ethereal feel. Cold air with the hint of ice creeping in, just at the corners of your vision. Like you'd turn and get a face full of snow if you turned too fast. Or maybe a face full of mistletoe and holly.

But the bogeyman of snow stayed away as I met up with Morley at the stables. Playmate wasn't around, as he was apparently off finding a proper coach for us. Which meant more a sturdy wagon with hopefully a cover. I sincerely hoped for a wagon cover, as it would be miserable to travel so far without one.

Morley recounted stuff that we'd be picking up today from the various stores. My job in this matter would be to sit in the ever filling cart and look mad. A job I was well suited for. And that meant I didn't have to walk around the city. I was pleased with this job. This was a job I was made for, sitting around looking mean.

Playmate came back with a rather nice covered wagon and four horses. It was too cold to properly glare at them, so I settled on side eyeing them as they side eyed me. A mutual understanding had occurred. 

I got up into the wagon while Morley took the reigns. I knew he had some experience with the beasts, but I wasn't sure how much. Enough to give us a mostly even ride even over the uneven cobblestones that lines the city streets.

I was even more pleased with the arrangements as the cart started to fill and we continued to trek through the city. I wasn't sure of some of the stuff Morley was loading up, but a lot of it was non perishable food fit only for the worst of circumstances, a lot of clothes and travelling heaters and various camping accoutrements to things from odd potion shops. Cords of firewood hung from the edge of the cart in case we couldn't gather wood nearby when we camped.

The potions were packed away carefully in a small wooden chest, the bottles not even clinking slightly. Someone had packaged them with something soft between them. Something likely as expensive as the potions themselves.

Morley ignored my raised eyebrow as I looked at them. I shrugged it off, glaring at the rabble that kept just having to try and get a peek inside the wagon, waving a short club around as a warning.

I kept up my end of the bargain, glaring at anyone who got to close, and some that didn't. It was an enjoyable undertaking

“Last stop before we leave is your place,” Morley said as he added some clothes. We were at the Palms. No one else seemed to be here, although it was at a bad time for business, too early for legitimate people, too late for the underbelly to be wheeling and dealing. It seemed to be mostly clothing. I'd be amused when the clothes invariably became sullied from the trip, since everything he was bringing seemed all fancy. Or fancy to a man who'd wear the same clothes every day if they'd let me.

“Will it even fit?” I asked with a grumble, staring at the frankly massive pile of items in the wagon. There was barely enough room to sit. Well, sit comfortably, at least. I liked sitting comfortably. I didn't like sitting upright like my military days.

Morley grinned, showing off his needle sharp teeth. I shivered in the cold air.

“More than enough room.” I eyed the wagon. Maybe enough room if I didn't want to bring anything with me.

So we trundled over to my place with the wagon. It caused no small disturbance, but no one felt like doing anything about it other than watch. It was becoming too cold for more destructive rabble rousing.

Dean was there, cleaning the place up. I gave him some specific instructions for what to do if something untoward were to happen. We had already been over this quite a lot, but I felt the urge to remind him.

I didn't get to say my goodbyes to Singe, as according to Dean she had a job come up from her brother. I didn't like it, but there wasn't much for me to do. I was glad to see she was getting her own work, at least.

My pile of stuff I brought with me was a lot shorter. Some clothes, a couple of the headknockers and other protective measures, a small keg of beer, and some hand held fruit pies Dean had made. He either had a good guess of when I'd be leaving, or Morley had told him. Either way, I was pleased that I'd have something tasty for a short while, at least.

Morley made a disgusted sound at the keg of beer as we made room for it. “I get me some beer for this ill-fated trip or you get no me and no beer!”

He didn't respond, just shoved the keg in a bit further.

And with the last of the items needed, we braced against the cold and started out of the city, towards the ancient ruins.

_Try to come back in one piece._

I shivered, and not from the cold.

_I might miss you if you died._


	21. Chapter 21

Neither of us talked as until we hit the city gates. Morley seemed to relax while I just got more tense. I hated being outside the city. It had giant woolly mammoths and flying thunder lizards and nature. I hated nature. I got enough of that as a marine.

I'd have thought Morley would hate it also. Maybe he did. Maybe he was just happy he had managed to rope me into all this without me running screaming into the night. I sighed, grabbing the last of the fruit pies. I knew they weren't going to last long, but at least there were some.

“You're awfully chipper for a man going into an infested doomed hell hole filled to the brim with ghosts of his dead relatives,” I said, frowning at Morley. Morley shrugged, continuing to urge the horses forward. They were surprisingly compliant. Maybe because I wasn't ordering them around. I was content to lie down in the clothes in the back of the wagon, eating my pastries, pretending the horses didn't exist. They were polite enough to do the same to me.

“I'll get this done and over with, then I can go back to wining and dining the city and forgetting about the elven elite, and revelling in the fact they can't order me to do anything for them ever again.” Morley had a good point. I'd be pretty happy to get it over with, if I had been so panicked before about it.

The road started to get bumpier as we got further from the city. The air was still as dirty as it was in the city. Each slightly more jolted step away seemed to bring in cleaner air, the sounds of the city disappearing and being replaced with the most loathsome of all sounds. Nature.

I sat up in the wagon, clutching the bar that ran along the edge of the inside. It felt like the wagon was built for longer journeys, more for those planning on making a new life for themselves out in the wilderness somewhere. Morley wasn't my first choice of setting up a homestead with, truth be told. I'd rather go with someone who could conjure real food out of thin air. Morley could conjure roots and vegetables, but that sure wasn't a nice juicy steak.

I already hated everything about this. Damned nature, damned chipper dark elves and their veganism, damned lack of beer and beds and-

“Stop whining, it can't be worse than the cantard,” Morley quipped, smirking back at me. My annoyance must be palpable. Exes had told me it was an almost physical force of it's own. One had even given it a nick name.

“We're outside the city. Without women. Or wine. Or song.”

I paused for a moment, looking outside. Small winter birds flitted around.

“It sucks.”

I fell backwards back into the wagon. I hit my head on the edge of the cask, grumbling as I rubbed it. No blood. We had covered it with a blanket before leaving.

“I'm going to take a nap,” I said, staring up at the ribs of the wagon's cover, sighing. Morley chuckled softly, urging the horses to go a bit faster. The cart clattered forward as I drifted off into sleep. A great trait to pick up in basic training, being able to sleep anywhere. I had known guys who could sleep standing up. I wasn't quite that good at it, but I was damned close.


	22. Chapter 22

I woke up when my body realized the cart had stopped. I felt someone, hopefully Morley, unhitching the beasts from the cart. I sat up slowly, trying to not yawn. My neck and back ached from sleeping in the cart, the bumps likely doing nothing to ease the misery.

Peeking out of the cart, I saw Morley tying the horses around a nearby tree. Night was just starting to set in, the sky turning shades of blood red. We also had been travelling for some time it seemed, as both sides of the road were covered with trees, absolutely packed with them. Not the small trees near the city, nor the swamp trees in the cantard, but massive trees, the kind that reached the sky and blocked out the sun. Even with the winding road through the trees, I could only just see a sliver of the sky.

Most of the trees had lost their leaves, turning into a downy pile on the floor below where creepy crawlies would hide and feast. Morley had already cleared a place for a fire, but hadn't set anything else up yet. Even with the trees bare, their branches blotted out the sky above.

I shivered as I pulled myself out of the wagon. While the trees protected from wind, they also stopped the warmth of the sun reaching down too far.

“Garrett, I can hear you in there. Get a fire started, I'm going to find some bark for you to eat,” Morley shouted from somewhere nearby. I groaned. I hated fire starting, I was terrible at it. At least we had an actual flint and steel, and I wouldn't be spending half the night trying to make two branches catch fire.

I just got the fire started as Morley came back, piling more wood on it carefully. Morley eyed it cautiously before pulling out the tin cooking set from the wagon and setting it up near the fire. He dropped a handful of mushrooms and various nuts on the ground, sorting them out as the pan got hot. I grumbled, but noticed he had found some fresh garlic. Maybe dinner wouldn't be so bad after all.

He grinned at me, all teeth and cheerfulness as he started to cook over the fire, slowly chopping the various vegetables into the pot, letting them simmer in a bit of oil he had brought with him. We had enough supplies for nearly double the time we thought we'd need, but even then I was nervous. I was terrible at hunting for food, and while vegetables would last us awhile, there were empty plains in places. We'd need to hunt, unless Morley really was magic with those fingers and could find edibles in the middle of nothing and nowhere.

“What do you expect to run into in the ruins?” I asked as I scarfed down the food, as well as a warm cup of beer. Better than no beer. Morley pondered the question, rolling it around in his head.

“Rats? Vermin? Maybe some scavengers, but I doubt anything sapient.”

I could handle vermin. I didn't like it, but I could. I really didn't want to run into people squatting in the ruins of a city. That could go poorly.

Morley cleaned out the plates and cooking pots with a cloth before stacking them back into the wagon.

“Since you decided to sleep all day, I thought you could take guard shift,” he said, climbing up into the wagon and pulling one of the blankets over top of himself. I'd have argued we still should split up the night, but he was right. I felt pretty awake now after a decent amount of food in my stomach, and a bit of beer. Not enough to get tipsy, but enough to wake up to.

Night settled in around us as Morley fell asleep, the sounds of predators coming awake in the darkness.

I shivered as I poked the fire with a stick, urging daylight to come soon.


	23. Chapter 23

The faint crunch of leaves got louder as the various creatures scampered through the forests undergrowth, faint shrieks and warbles as some critters because bigger critter's dinner. The circle of life, I suppose. I was glad to be out of it, in the city, where I only had to worry about other people, and not nature red in tooth and claw.

Faint flickers dotted around the camp fire before disappearing, the creak of the woods making it feel like the trees themselves were closing in on us. I added another layer of fire wood to the fire as I prayed the light would come soon.

I blinked as I looked up. A small mote of light spiralled through the tree tops, leaving a trail of shimmering silver dust behind itself.

A wisp. Sometimes called the soul of a witch's companion. They could be found where witches tended to live, so generally you never saw them in the city. The light and pollution drowned them out, leaving those that did exist a dull grey.

This wisp though, was bright and sparkling, filled with an incandescent luminosity. Each branch it swirled around was left with a ribbon of light, before the dust decayed as quickly as sigh.

I watched as it disappeared into the highest branches, winking out of sight as it disappeared above them. 

They could be good luck or bad luck. Only a dedicated seer could tell you which it was for you. And as I saw no dedicated seers in the woods, I hunkered back down to reality, stocking the fire up more as I waited for Morley to reawaken.


	24. Chapter 24

Luckily, elves don't need to sleep that long. Despite the myths though, they did have to actually sleep. None of this serene meditation, all peaceful poses and hoity toity countenances. He slept like a bunch of logs, long limbs akimbo in the cart as I peeked inside. The sun had started to rise, finally, the barest glimpse of warmth appearing above. The cobblestones on the nearby road were starting to lighten up, almost as if they could feel the sun themselves.

“Morley! Morley get the fuck up the suns out,” I hissed, poking him with a stick. He groaned softly as he pulled himself out of the wagon. He quickly got over his discomfort though, springing up and starting to bend this way and that. I had seen it before, he liked to exercise. I didn't know what was wrong with his addled dark elf mind to think such things were a good idea, but he could do what he wanted.

I had already started making up some biscuits, setting them over the fire to bake before I had woken him up. He stared at them, eyes narrowed in suspicion as I buttered one up and handed it to him.

“You can either eat it, or spend time looking for more easily ambushed vegetables,” I said. He rolled his eyes and snatched it out of my hands.

His eyes went wide as he took a bite of it, face a mixture of confusion and horror.

“I put some blueberries in there.”

“Dean's rubbing off on you, Garrett. These are almost edible.”

I ignored the slight, eating several of the biscuits myself. They'd never be as good as Dean's, or even Morley's, but they had a ton of butter and that made everything better. If we just had bacon, it would almost be like a real meal! It would still get us through until lunch, at least.

Morley hitched the horses back up to the cart as I cleaned up the campsite and stowed the pots and pans. No reason to leave it messier than when we had arrived. I might live in the city, but I wasn't that uncouth to nature around me. Usually. Unless nature was being uncouth back at me.

Everything went well and we were back on the road again, myself in the back of the wagon nursing a bit of the beer from the keg, while Morley lead the monstrous horses onwards.

The horses seemed more surly today as we clattered over the road, inching ever closer to our goal. I was split between wanting to get there faster or slower before they hit a particularly bad bump, making myself and everything in the cart rise at least an inch before setting back down again. I howled in annoyance as Morley cackled. I should have known he was in league with the beasties. Every besides me was. Damned monsters were going to mind control the entire populace one day, and then everyone would see what a mistake they were.

I checked everything in the wagon.

“The horses cracked the beer keg!” I said to Morley, not whining at all. Morley sighed. I'm sure he rolled his eyes, but I couldn't tell. He was focused on the road ahead. I grumbled some more before carefully patching the keg with what we had on hand before setting it up gently in the corner, nestled among a blanket. It should keep like that, hopefully.

A few others passed us on the road as we continued forward. Several letter carriers, darting passed the wagon at blistering paces, overtaking us with nary a word, the horses themselves too focused on the trip to give us a passing neigh. Our own horses seemed disgruntled at that, as though it was rude they weren't greeted by every other horse on road. Egotistical monsters.

Slowly the road widened a bit, although both sides were still hemmed in by trees. The trees themselves changed though.

We had entered wood elf territory. 

Morley looked distinctly less pleased with the change, urging the horses to go faster. They ignored him, going at their continued steady pace.

“Don't want to meet your cousins for potluck?” I said with a smirk.

Morley grimaced, scooting over on the wagon's boards, letting me crawl up to sit next to him. Being curled up in the back of the wagon might be okay for sleeping, but I had already slept once Morley had started out, and was wide awake now.

“They're uncouth. No sense of style at all. Just leaves, more leaves, feathers, antlers, and more leaves.” He said, frowning at the woods around us. I could see why he'd find that distasteful. The only leaves he liked were the ones he could eat, which weren't the type the wood elves like to wear. I wondered if you could dress with edible leaves.

My daydream of eating the dress off a fair elven maiden came crashing down as hard as the cart, one of the wheels cracking and splitting down the spit.

Morley spit out several elvish curses before pulling the cart to the side of the road, hopping out with an impressive mix of finesse and anger. I got out slower, surveying the damage.

“Not too bad. We did bring tools, right?” I said, running a finger along the cracked wheel.

Morley was already dragging the tools out. “Of course we did Garrett. What do you take me for, an idiot?”

“Welll-” I said, before stopping. Morley wasn't in the mood for ribbing. “Not at all. Can you fix it, or do you want me to?”

“You can fix wagon wheels?” Morley said, slightly amused. He was already pulling the wheel off, setting it up with the tools as he prepared to fill and set the crack.

I shrugged. “Not all wagons are pulled by horses. And those wagons that are pulled by young marines need to be fixed by those same young marines.

Part of basic training, honestly. We usually had beasts of burden to carry supplies, but sometimes we had to drag them ourselves if there were too many supplies to just put in a pack and carry. The best of those at the job got cushy gigs repairing the higher ups wagons.

I wasn't the best at that job.

Something was wrong though. Old senses came awake, tingling.

“Morley,” I said with a whisper. He waved a hand at me, focused on the wheel,

I gritted my teeth. “Morley, sense.”

He stopped immediately, eyes going wide. A code, almost. Not a great code, since we had never discussed it before, but apparently good enough for him to get what I meant. Looking at his eyes and the way his nose was flaring, he felt it too.

We were being watched.


	25. Chapter 25

I opened my mouth to speak, but was knocked senseless by the woman that seemed to almost step out of the shadows of the woods.

She was inhumanely thin and nearly as tall as the average human, all angular body parts, almost as alien as the grey elves from what felt like so long ago now. She was clearly elven though, two eyes, a mouth, nose, ears. Her skin was the same colour as an exotic maple tree I had seen once. One of our commanders in the marines had used taxpayer money to buy himself some. He had the mistake of not buying any for our local Stormwarden, who zapped him and had taken the trees.

It was the same shade, a soft coral colour, becoming darker brown around her fingernails and eyes.

And oh! What lovely eyes she had! A brilliant green, full of forestal promises, the same colour that the leaves had held just a few short months ago. She was staring at Morley for the moment, so I continued to let my eyes wander over her.

Morley did the wood elves a disservice, calling her clothes leaves. Sure, there was certainly a leafy theme going on in them, but they were clearly made from some kind of fabric. Strips of dark browns and greens were layered over each other before being wrapped around, in some sort of odd shirt and pants ensemble, but less sewn and more draped over, held in place by a specific way of looping it. The colours blended into the trees so well I almost had a hard time seeing where her clothes and the forest behind her began. Which I guess would be the point of her clothing, to blend in as seamlessly as possible.

It was sad though, as they covered most of her body, only the barest sneaking hint of curves underneath them.

She carried a hunting bow, the kind our archers used if they were incapable of pulling the strings of a longbow. Or when fighting in terrain where a larger bow was less than ideal. It seemed less carved from wood than grown from it, small sprouting leaves at the top and bottom of the frame, small tight buds curled around 

“Hello Dotes,” she said. Her voice was as beautiful as a spring river, all soft and gentle. I was completely smitten. “Your companion is drooling.” 

She finally looked over at me. I wiped my mouth, frowning. I most certainly was not drooling! Not yet, at least.

“Did you need something, Doister?” I didn't recognize the name, but I hadn't ever studied prominent elven families. The only elf I had regular contact with was next to me. 

Morley looked grumpy. He had gone back to repairing the wagon wheel. Was there bad blood between the two of them? He certainly seemed to recognize him.

“I could repair that fast, you know,” she said softly, lighting up onto the wagon seat, crossing her legs and placing the bow in her lap. Her fingernails tapped against the bow gently, musically. She was ignoring me again, eyes on Morley.

I sighed. Why couldn't I have all the lovely elven maidens pining for me?

Morley looked even grumpier at the suggestion. “No.”

“Why not let her fix it? Please Morley, I don't want to waste time-”

“If she repairs it, we'll waste even more time.”

She finally had a look on her face something other than serene. I recognize this look. It was the look a teenager got when they were worried their parents would be annoyed. “You haven't visited in ages! You could at least come have dinner, Dotes! Please? For Gramma Doister?” she said. Was she Grandma Doister? My eyes bugged out of my head at the thought. They did say elves aged supernaturally well.

Morley turned towards me. I tamped down my existential crises and looked him in the eyes. “I've never had dinner with beautiful woodland elves before...” I said, swallowing as I watched her shift on the seat. Morley sighed, defeated. He pulled the woodworking tools into the wagon, waving a hand lackadaisically at the wagon wheel. 

She gracefully oozed on the carriage, leaving the bow behind. I was tempted to touch it, but decided that the old myths of elven weapons knowing their owner might have some kernel of truth to them.

It was when she and the wagon wheel both started to glow a bright, virulent green that I decided I had made the best decision.

She sand an odd song, a mixture of ancient and modern elvish. I couldn't understand any of it. The only elvish words I remembered were curse words. 

The trees leaned in hungrily, bows groaning as they tried to reach the words, tried to reach the singer. I eyed them, worried. They unnerved me, although I felt no malice in them. They just wished she was singing to them. I wished she was singing for me.

She was right though, she was quicker at repairing the wagon. Vines had covered the wheel before receding, the wagon wheel looking like brand new, no hint of and breaks or tears any more. Small flowers bloomed on the wheel, soft white flowers before peeling off, decaying before our eyes.

“To dinner!” she said, grabbing her bow before starting to lead us through the woods. Morley grumbled as he manoeuvred the wagon between the trees. The trees seemed to shift aside though as she lead us forward, making the job a bit easier. Not that it made Morley stop grumbling.


	26. Chapter 26

It was like something out of one of our fairy tales, a hidden magical city built in the threes. Our fairy tales usually ended with us burning the city to the ground though, which I tried to forget about. There were rumours that the trees themselves could feel your mood and would attack anyone meaning to do the city harm.

Surely remembering old tales wouldn't count for that, but I decided to think about other stuff to be safe.

Like how sparsely populated the city seemed to be. Barely even a city, although there could be more houses and such hiding even further back. Everything blended in so well it was frankly making me almost dizzy trying to see where everything was. Just like Morley's friend's bow, the houses seemed to just grow out of the trees themselves, not as though they were hewn by hand.

No wonder my ancestors liked to go and whack them sometimes, it surely took forever to build and would have been annoying to hear about how much better it was for the environment.

The trees creaked ominously as we finally stopped outside one of the taller trees. A staircase of branches grew out of it.

“Leave the wagon, I'll make sure everything's safe.” 

So there was still theft here. Or maybe just the food would have been stolen by woodland creatures.

We traipsed up the staircase with myself in the middle, an eleven beauty before and after me. It was quite the view, all shapely curves and beautiful lines....

We finally made it to the top, neither of my companions breathing hard, while I was nearly panting. It was hard climbing up a tree with just branches for stairs, I had been hugging the tree more than looking around. I wavered for a moment before Morley turned and steadied me. 

“Garrett seriously, stop over reacting to having to exercise.”

I started to say something before the elven lady giggled. I breathed in deeply.

“What was your name again? I don't think you said it.” I said, turning on the charm.

“I should have known Morley never talked about me. I'm Sowzalea, or you can call me Sowzy. Morley use to call me that,” she said, batting her eyes at him. He pinked up slightly before rolling his eyes. Were they lovers previously? Would Morley get annoyed if I made a move on her? He hadn't shown any inclination to care what his previous lovers did with anyone else, so maybe not. Then again, he dragged me out into the middle of nowhere and we had managed to find a pretty little elven lady, I was going to take full advantage of that situation if I could.

We winded our way through the tree tops, going over small foot bridges made from vines and planks before finally stopping inside a frankly massive tree. I had no idea how I hadn't seen it earlier. The bark was a dark red, and it still had it's leaves, although they were more needles than leaves. The tree was bigger around than my own home was, and taller than anything I had seen in the city, save for the palace itself. Looking down to see exactly how tall it was was a mistake though, and I quickly looked back inside the tree house.

Warm light flooded out as Sowzy pulled away vines from the side of the three, showing that the interior had been hollowed out. Furniture of various shapes and sizes were scattered around, making the place look quite comfortable and homey. 

I opened my mouth to comment on how pleasant it looked but was unable to as my words were stolen by the appearance of a new elf.

For a moment I wasn't even sure she was an elf. Shorter than most elves were, she was also plump, had white hair and wrinkles. I didn't even know elves could get fat. Or get white hair. Or wrinkles. The only indicator she was elven was her earthy skin tone and the distinctly pointed ears sticking up from her frizzy white hair.

“Mor-mor! You're back!” she shrieked before barrelling past me, picking up Morley in a tight embrace. I was amazed at how strong she was, since she actually had Morley dangling off the floor for several seconds. His eyes were squeezed shut, a look of pain on his face even as she let him go.

“I knew you'd come back! Oh! Did you finally settle down? Who's this?” she said, looking me up and down. We both sputtered at the same time, myself confused, Morley annoyed.

She perked up even more when she realized that meant Morley might still be single. “Oh! You're finally back to marry Sowzy then! Such a good boy. I'll go get the wedding rings!” she said, before trundling off.

Sowzy giggled, looking at the two of us before turning more serious. “Oh don't look so dour, Morley. I'll make sure she understands you're both just passing through. I just couldn't not watch that happen. Oh, Garret. That was Grandma Doister. How do you like her?” Sowzy was smiling politely. I had to chuckle.

“A very nice grandmother. Seems very loving.”

“Until she hits you with a broom switch,” Morley muttered sullenly.

“That happened decades and decades ago, do forgive her,” Sowzy said. She didn't sound very apologetic. More amused.

The mood was considerably lighter though as we walked down some interior stairs, finding ourselves in what appeared to be a dining room. There was already food on the table, and two other elves there. They both appeared to be around the ages of Morley and Sowzy, but I don't know elven ages. Maybe they were Sowzy's parents. I smiled at the both of them as I hung back slightly, waiting to see if Morley or Sowzy were going to sit down.

They both sat down at the same time. There were three places to sit, but one of the settings appeared to be for someone much younger, and the other was at the head of the table. So the one directly between the two lovely elven companions I had apparently made.

I could live with that. I could quite easily live with that.

I scooted in between the two of them, studying the other elves. Their clothing was of a more normal sort, less for blending into trees and more for lounging around a house...or tree house, as the case may be. 

One of them was wearing a low cut shirt puffy sleeves that were gathered up into separate poofs of cloth with strands of flowering vines. She (or maybe he?) was wearing a literal crown of flowers, although the buds were fairly small, as most of the flowers had wilted away with the coming weather. Perhaps they had a hot house somewhere. It wouldn't surprise me that they were making flowers to put around their town just to make it appear even more fairytale like. Elves were all about appearances after all.

The second...the second looked as though someone took the strongest of human blacksmiths, toned them down a little to try and fit the elven aesthetic, then gave up, threw some brightly coloured paint on them in various floral patterns, and threw them into the treetops. More muscles than even I had, they were brimming with strength. The only way you got that strong was from working metals of some kind. Even if you lived in the woods, you'd still need worked metals eventually, I guessed.

They both caught me looking them over, and smiled politely. Neither of them offered a name, and neither Morley nor Sowzy seemed to want to give me their names either. Sowzy was trying to get Morley to talk, and Morley was trying to ignore her.

Both their plans were interrupted when Grandma Doister reappeared, hauling several plates in with the help of a very young elf. I sighed internally. Everything was vegetarian. Like it always was with elves.

Morley leaned in close, whispering in my ear, teeth almost touching. “I told you we shouldn't have come. You should have listened then. Now you suffer with me.”

We both jumped as Grandma Doister sat down. “So Mor-mor, who is your little friend?” she said, scooping out some food before passing plates around. We were all distracted for a moment then, passing plates around as Morley seemed to ponder how he wanted to answer.

“Yes, who am I, Mor-mor?” If looks alone could kill, I'd be dead. I'd just have to wait for him to kill me when we were alone, instead.

Morley smiled at Grandma Doister so widely I could swear I saw all his sharp pointed teeth. He had a lot more than I thought he had, they were almost mesmerizing.

There were even more than I thought there were. Maybe they were like a sharks mouth? God, that would be terrifying.

“Garrett here is a travelling companion. I was...enlisted...by the council to fetch something. I've brought him along because one could always use some dumb muscle. Some very very dumb muscle,” he said, words becoming more sibilant as he spoke.

I placed a hand over my chest, as though wounded.

Everyone else seemed to ponder Morley's words. It was the blacksmith type who spoke first. “You know that's a...” then said something in elven. Some gobbledygook I couldn't understand. The others nodded slowly, agreeing with him. Or her. Morley sighed, shrugging.

“Yes. But it must be done.”

The others nodded again at that, slowly.

“So! Garrett! Tell us about yourself!” Grandma Doister said after they all were silent for a bit, picking at their food. Everyone relaxed as I started regaling them with tales of marine life and ex marine life, including the stories about how me and Morley met. Sowzy and Grandma Doister seemed to adore those stories. They didn't seem to mind that most of them had Morley killing a ton of people in them either. Maybe being so close to nature, death was just part of life, or something equally philosophical the Dead Man could tell me later.

The food itself wasn't too bad, they seemed to be using a lot of spices to offset the fact there was no meat. Some of the dishes were downright scorching in heat, making me sniffle a bit. Everyone seemed to find that amusing to watch. Dinner wasn't a terribly long affair, before winding down, everyone sipping some sort of non alcoholic after dinner drink. Tea, maybe, but it tasted far sweeter than that.

“So, Garrett and you can sleep in your old room, dear. Sowzy can take you there!” Grandma Doister said as she and the young elf started to clean off the table. The other two ones who I had never caught the names of had already disappeared, talk of early work the next day.

Morley shrugged, defeated. I knew he'd rather just leave and sleep in the wagon somewhere, but he couldn't refuse her offers. Something told me he'd never hear the end of it if he did.

And so the three of us thank her for the meal before following Sowzy out.


	27. Chapter 27

Small glowing bubbles of light danced across the woven wood bridges and along the trails far below us, giving the entire town a whimsical look. Small pixies and other fae creatures I thought were only legends danced through the bows in the twinkling light cheerfully.

It made my teeth hurt how saccharine and sweet it was. How did Morley survive living here for even a day? I thought he'd have gone mad from being around all this. Maybe that's why he had become a bonebreaker...the second he got away from all this, he just snapped.

Sneaking a glance over at him, he seemed to share my feelings about the scene around us. Very quietly, he whispered to me.

“The lights are for guests only. They're trying to impress you. I'm not sure why, you're not worth impressing,” he said, suppressing a grin as I started to sputter. I was worthy of all the finest nations of the world catering to me. I preferred my catering to be in the form of women, wine, and beer, but I suppose pretty lights and music appealed to the artist in us all. Although my artist was buried under a mound of beer, mumbling about how all the best artists were drunks.

I couldn't disagree with that. It was a good policy for both making and enjoying art.

Luckily we only had to cross two of the beautiful and yet incredibly nerve racking bridges before she led us into another home. It appeared to be her own place. Morley at least looked appreciative.

“Finally got your own tree. How quaint,” he said. I was pretty sure he wasn't being sarcastic, even if everything about how he said it screamed sarcasm. Sometimes he was just like that. It also was a truly quaint home. Paintings hung on the walls as well as old bows and various hunting accoutrements. Sowzy snapped her fingers, causing some magical lights to flare up. Elven magic. Our sorcerers had tried for countless years to figure out how they did it, but it was something they were damned closed lipped on. Even after a few skirmishes and some torture. Completely normal for us humans, after all. Luckily that was a few hundred years ago. 

Then again, I'm sure Grandma Doister would remember those stories...and have been there for them...

I looked down at the pair of beds in the spare bedroom Sowzy was showing us. I looked up at the two elves. I looked back down at the beds.

“I'm not a pretzel. I can not fit on these beds,” I grumbled. They were smaller than my own bed way back when I was a kid had been. There was no way I was going to fit on either of them. Even smashed together, I doubted I'd have fit.

Sowzy solemnly stepped over to the beds, and pushed them together. Just as I was about to complain how that didn't help, she dragged a couch of the same height over, waving a hand at the now just barely the same height as I was bed contraption. If I contorted a bit, I'd fit. Maybe. It might just be more comfortable to sleep in the wagon though. I didn't feel like trying to find the wagon in the middle of the night in a forest.

And so I climbed onto the combination of beds and couch, pulling the blankets haphazardly over myself. They covered me quite well, to my surprise. Even with the uncomfortable position I had to take to ensure my entire body was off the floor, the beds themselves were comfortable, with no appreciable lumps. They had to be either new or rarely used, in that case.

“We'll come get you in the morning,” Morley said. I knew what that meant. It meant covering my head with a pillow and trying to ignore what Morley and his old childhood friend were up to.


	28. Chapter 28

Morning came sooner than I hoped. Birds and sunlight streamed through the vines covering the window, all bright and cheerful and happy. My body did not agree with the sentiment, grumbling about having to be contorted in such unnatural ways. I'm sure Morley would suggest a nice leisurely stroll next to the cart would help get my body in check.

“Time to go, we let you sleep in already,” Morley said. Think of demons and they appear. I cracked one eye open at him, frowning. He looked all awake and refreshed. Come to think of it, I hadn't heard any noise when I went to sleep. Either him and his friend were silent as doormice, or they hadn't done anything.

“You look awfully chipper for someone who's been awake all night.”

Morley looked at me quizzically. He didn't get it. Maybe he actually did sleep. I eyed him again but dropped it.

Breakfast apparently had already been served and eaten, although they left the food out for myself to nibble at. Breakfast is one of the few meals that can survive without meat, in my opinion, although it's greatly improved by the addition of a rasher of bacon and sausage. The oatmeal and berries were good though, as well as the biscuits and oddly refreshing fruity bubbly drink. The drink was almost as good as wine, albeit alcoholic. Sowzy was no where to be seen, nor were any of the other wood elves. While the sound of nature was positively overwhelming, I didn't hear any one around.

Morley seemed to pick up on the unasked question. “They've gone off to do chores. Some of us have to be up early to do our jobs. Sowzy left the way open for us to leave.” I rolled my eyes but finished stuff my face. He always liked to needle me on how I liked to sleep in. Everyone did. It was the best way to live, if you could do it, so I did it copiously. Everyone else was just jealous.

Stepping out of the tree, I could see the steps a lot more clearly in the light, traipsing down the stairs nearly as elegantly as my elven companion. The cart had apparently been rearranged in our absence, as well as extra food had been packed. Everything seemed to be in order. I checked it over to make sure everything was there before hopping into the cart. They had even made it about twenty percent cosier, the smug bastards.

Morley started the cart up, the horses seeming even more docile and calm. Elves were said to have that effect on animals. Maybe they just liked the fact the elves had apparently stuffed them full of honey oats and brushed them until they gleamed. The stockier of the two flicked its head back at me, smirking. I sneered back at it before lying down in the cart. They could bump all they wanted, it would be just as comfortable as last night.

Despite their deepest darkest wishes to inconvenience me, the horses were unable to find any bumps until we were back on the road.

It was around noon when we finally reached the end of the forest, massive redwoods thinning out until they were wilting shoots of trees, until finally it was the bare plains.

The plains I knew stretched for miles upon miles. Although I had never seen them, I knew of them. Quite a bit of our grain was from the region, as well as people like Winger. Most of the towns were along the bigger roads. While this was the royal highway, so to speak, most carts went along the bigger thoroughfare to the north. It was still well within the plains.

Several hours in and soon there was no sign of forest at all. Once in awhile it would seem as though you could make out a farm or trees on the horizon, but they'd disappear just as soon as they appeared, the sound of wind whipping through grass and grain alike. 

I closed my eyes and fell asleep. There wasn't much else to do. The horses could keep Morley occupied.


	29. Chapter 29

The weather had turned, bitterly, ominously cold. Tendrils of frost licked at my face, freezing the tears to my face. Breathing in felt as though I was being stabbed in the chest. I slowly sat upright, staring at the frozen form of Morley and the horses.

I woke up with a gasp, startling Morley and the horses. Morley pulled off to the side a bit, looking back at me, concerned. I sat up, shaking a bit.

“You've been having nightmares pretty frequently.” So he had been watching me for awhile before waking me up so rudely before.

I had honestly forgotten how many nightmares I use to have. The Dead Man had tinkered in my head so often while I slept I had slowly lost the nightmares that use to plague me. There was a reason why when I rented places my landlords had always jacked up the rent, and it wasn't because I was so handsome and good at getting money. I use to drive away the other renters. Moving in with someone who was already dead had been the best option possible. I even got to pretend it was because it was a sound investment.

I waved a shaky hand at him. “It's fine. We should keep going.” I didn't need Morley to be concerned about me. It was unsettling.

His concern turned towards amusement. “I guess you've also gone blind. It's starting to get dark, now is a good a time as any to make camp.” I blinked slowly, looking at the horizon.

“Huh.” I said. The sky was turning a lovely shade of crimson. I shuddered harder than I should have. We had a few bundles of firewood in the wagon for when we hit the plains, and we pulled out one of those and lit it. The light seemed to carry for miles, the light flickering slightly as the wind picked up. I'd have to be careful tending the fire tonight.

Instead of crawling into the cart to sleep, Morley surprised me by sitting down next to me and the fire, pulling a box out of the cart with him. What I thought was one of the potion boxes turned out to be a box filled with chocolates. I raised an eyebrow at him as he took one out and handed it to me.

He shrugged non-committally, putting the box down next to him as he poked at the fire with a stick. “You paid me well to go into a vampire den, and money doesn't always work on you. Food works on you alarmingly often.” He was smiling, so I knew he wasn't mad. Stating a fact of the bribery that worked on me.

“That and a nice figure,” I said around a bar of chocolate. He grinned at that, just the hint of teeth showing.

“That too. But that's not something I can just cart around. Can't you find a pretty lady anywhere though?” 

I looked across the plains before shaking my head. “If there's a lady out here, I don't think I'd want to meet her. Stories about the wind given form itself live out here.”

I took another bite of my chocolate before changing topics. “Don't you need to sleep?”

He shifted slightly, turning away a bit. “I can get by meditating, it'll be fine.”

“That's an old wives tale. Elves don't meditate, they sleep.”

“And you know the truth how exactly?” he said, turning back towards me and raising a single eyebrow. Damn it, he had learned my trick. I was duly impressed by it. I admitted I didn't know.

“I'll be fine for a night.”

“You don't have to stay up with me. I'm fine, I just had a nightmare. Not like I went nuts or anything.” I wasn't sure if I was insulted by him staying up to comfort me, or amused. Something like warmth filled me though. I settled on begrudging amusement.

He raised the other eyebrow to match the first. “I'm staying awake because the plains are dangerous. At least, this section is. You were quite right about the wind demons. There's a word for them in elvish, but it's too similar to a rather crude word in Karentine to say out loud.” I couldn't help myself and grinned. I knew the word he was talking about.

“Fine, fine. And how do we take out wind demons if they attack?”

“By staying awake. They steal the breath of the sick, the elderly, the sleeping, until they have enough breath to blow down the world.” I rolled my eyes. Melodramatic elvish fairy tales. At least our stories were all about heroes with swords and sorcery, felling crude monsters and sometimes felling pretty maidens with other weapons. None of this whimsy mixed with horror, just good old fashioned bloodshed. 

“I'll make sure they don't steal your breath, old man,” he said. My face contorted as I snorted loudly. He had caught me to the punch, I had been about to say the same thing to him. I prodded at the fire vigorously, sending sparks into the night sky as he began to chuckle quietly.

We talked for a bit about how his sister was doing and how Singe was doing with her hobbies. She had finally picked up a hobby away from home, and was learning how to knit from one of the local ladies. I was pleasantly surprised they had allowed her to join their knitting circle, but I suspected Dean had said something to them and insinuated some unpleasant truths about their husbands. Dean knew exactly how little old ladies thought, being one himself.

“So she brought it home, as well as...” I trailed off, watching as the fire starting to spiral around and around. 

“Oh that's not good,” I said, breathing shallowly. The fire continued to twirl and dance as both Morley and I reached down to grab our nearby weapons. Flickering, dancing, jumping, the fire twisted into bizarre shapes, unnerving and unwholesome.

Looking up towards the sky I saw them.

Spirits. Not quite though, they were more intertwined with the earth than with the sky, although there was quite a bit of air in there. I had never paid much attention to the stories about them, there were none near the city itself. Out here though, out here...there were many of them.

“Can they be killed?” I hissed as we both stood up. We were both moving in nearly perfect harmony, craning about as we watched them rage around us. I counted about five of them.

Morley twitched slightly as they lowered. “Yes. If you can get a hit on them, they go down quickly. I've never tried, but I don't doubt the person who told me.”

I didn't doubt them either. They seemed more physically real then some of the spirits I had seen before. More physically set inside this reality.

“Breath as little as possible.” Morley hissed as he swiped at one of the spirits. I was amazed when it managed to get out of his way. If they could avoid Morley, there was little chance I'd manage to stab one. Maybe my wild swings would surprise them though. I hoped. 

We stood back to back as they lowered and started in towards us, disturbingly long limbs ending in black earth claws swiping at us, wide open mouths sucking at our breath and the fire, the sparks swirling into the sky. I tried to not pant as I continued to swipe at the creatures in wide arcs. I could feel Morley behind me, twisting and turning about. Out of the corner of my eye I could sometimes see him, knives flashing in the fire.

The horses shrieked and whinnied nearby, a monstrous unholy thing of hooves and gnashing teeth and flying manes. I did not doubt they would take care of themselves quite easily. I turned my attention back to those in front of me, trying to glare them down as I swung wildly.

I nearly shrieked when I felt my blade finally hit one of the spirits, cleaving it in twain. It split apart, oozing a noxious foul substance, reminiscent of mud or earth, although it seemed to be even more frothy. It hissed and sizzled before dissipating into a curl of smoke, disappearing into the fire.

Morley took down one at nearly the same time, I'm sure because the spirits were shocked one of them had managed to be slain by the likes of me. He managed to dig both daggers into it, tearing it in half like a thin sheet of old vellum, covering the two of us in the sizzling innards. They burned slightly before disappearing like the first creature.

The rest of them howled before taking off, quickly vanishing from view as they disappeared into the grass around us. After several long moments the grass and wind faded to the uncanny stillness of the night, cold and lonely.

I finally inhaled deeply, watching as the fire calmed and we both sat down. I could feel where the creatures had stolen some of my wind, my chest feeling tight and pained. Morley looked me over, looking concerned.

“I'm fine. It's nothing, I just need to rest.” He didn't respond, just looking uneasy before he sat back down with me, starting to stock the dwindling fire back up again.

I breathed in and out slowly, slowly, air returning, head clearing. Any pieces of the creature that were left were gone, as I watched Morley throw the pieces into the fire. They sizzled and crackled, causing the fire to change colours in what I'm sure would normally have been a beautiful display. It just made me feel tired.

“It'll keep them away for the rest of the night,” he said softly. I could see he was also having trouble breathing. He just was having a better time hiding it. It was how they killed people, if I remembered exactly. Made them over-exert themselves until they died, they just sped up the process. But if you just stayed calm...they'd dig their long claws into you, and pull you inside out.

I reached up into the wagon and pulled out a bottle of tea, sipping at it unhappily. It was bitter and cold and not at all like beer, but it slowly brought breath back. I passed it to Morley who took it gladly, sipping it. He held it near the fire, warming it a bit before we passed it back and forth. I should have thought of that.

We spent the rest of the night in silence, passing the bottle of tea between us.


	30. Chapter 30

The moment the sun started to crest over the horizon, we doused the fire and scuttled it, myself crawling into the wagon to nap, Morley climbing up to get the horses to get started. The horses looked tired and worn, I almost felt bad for them.

“Will you be fine?” I asked. I hesitated. Sometimes Morley could get surly if you insinuated he wasn't able to take care of himself. I relaxed as he threw me a grin. 

“Unlike you, I can go without sleep. Rest up. I'll wake you up when we get near the town.” I nodded, closing my eyes as the cart rattled forward.

There was a small town along the route, one of a few. We'd be hitting the closest one sometime today, hopefully. It was a town quite similar to the one Winger had left. Her old village was further north, I guess. I highly doubted it was this town. 

We hoped to stop there for the night, and restock some food and drink, as well as sleep in an actual bed, assuming they had an inn of some kind. Some of the towns were so small they had no inns, you just had to convince a villager to let you sleep on their floors. Terribly uncouth for two city men such as ourselves.

I dragged the blanket over me as the horses whined, falling asleep in record time.


	31. Chapter 31

“Wake up! Wake up! I have no idea how you can sleep this soundly,” Morley said, digging thin fingers into my side. I jerked away from him, unsure if he was trying to pinch me or tickle me. Either way I was having none of it.

I sat upright in the wagon, yawning. Small children were staring at the two of us. I mugged at them until they went away. Blinking, I took stock of where we were.

Ah. We made it to the town in record time. Morley must have upped the pace to get here so soon. The horses seemed to agree, panting slightly. Rather cruel to make them work so hard, but then again they were horses and not me, so I just dragged my sorry ass out of the wagon. I saw the town did in fact have an inn. A rather busy inn. I guess the townsfolk had nowhere else to go drink when they got thirsty.

“Go get us a pair of rooms, I'll go get the horses and cart stowed somewhere safer,” Morley said as my feet hit the ground. I nodded and yawned. Morley looked as cheerful and chipper as though he had slept a full nights sleep. Maybe he could sleep and have the horses walk along.

Nobody in the inn turned to stare at me when I entered. I was almost disappointed. I took great delight in disrupting casual conversations just by being me. I shrugged as everyone continued to eat and drink, making my way to the bar.

“Two rooms for the night,” I said, digging around for my money. I had brought some of my own in case Morley failed at keeping his accounts in order. He had failed a few times in the past.

“Ain't got two rooms. Got one room left,” the yokel bartender said slowly, reminiscent of a donkey slowly thinking if it really wanted to do something or not, and settling on indifference. He continued to slowly clean his glass before staring at me. “You want it or naw?” I was sorely tempted to settle on naw myself, but an actual bed, even if shared, would be great. Being a pretzel or being bumped around a wagon had taken their toll.

“Sure. You got a spare cot?” I said, laying down some silver on the table. If it was too much or too little, he gave no indication, pocketing it all. “We have a straw mattress we can throw up in there for y'all.”

“That'll do.” I took the key that had appeared on the table.

“Furthest door at the end upstairs, if y'all want supper you better get it soon,” he yawned, turning to fill another customers empty beer cup. I had paid way too much if he was giving dinner as part of it. Oh well, I wasn't going to be here long enough to destabilize an entire economy.

The room turned silent just as my first step hit the landing up to the room. I had planned to check it out before loading items upstairs, but my curiosity got the better of me.

Morley had stepped inside, loading bemused at the yokels as they stared at him. I waved at him. He smiled back, walking towards the stairs, ignoring the staring. Everyone turned and watched him in unison.

“It's like one of those old creepy plays from the turn of the century with the children and the crying mothers or something,” I muttered as we both went upstairs.

“As usual, you're making no sense. Did you get two rooms?” Morley could look comfortable even as people threw him on top of a funeral pyre. He didn't seem to care no one in town seemed to like the fact he was planning on staying the night. I didn't give a fuck either. They could accept a dark elf hybrid for one night.

“They only had one room.” I sighed, opening the door at the end of the hall. It was surprisingly big for a room at an inn. A large bed on ramshackle wooden slats took up most of the room. In fact, it was really the only thing in the room other than a chamberpot and a rickety chair.

“There is no way a second bed is going to fit into here.”

“Then we'll share.” 

I had shared beds before, not counting the countless ladies that have graced my beds. There were a lot of cold nights out in the islands, you snuggled up to anyone willing to be snuggled if you wanted to keep your fingers and toes in the morning and not have them fall off from frostbite.

“Fine. I'll go get our shit, you can stay here and look pretty so you aren't jumped by half a dozen towns folks and slaughter them all and then we have to run town early and...” I rambled off as I left the room, closing the door on an amused Morley.

While the yokels had certainly seen the two of us go upstairs, they seemed intent on ignoring the shit out of me as I went back down. No one seemed to notice me as I hauled up the most important gear. No one had touched our stuff. I guess they hated dark elves enough they didn't want to deal with stealing anything either.

The last trip was the longest, as I was intent on drinking the last of the beer, but dragging a pony keg up by myself proved to be a bit of a task. Especially with the barkeep giving me nasty looks. I'm sure he'd rather I drank his shitty local brew, but I wasn't going to risk dying of some terrible over yeasted thing in the middle of nowhere when I had some leftover.

Opening the door, I sighed. Morley was still here.

But so was one of the locals, hog tied up on the bed. A rather wicked looking scythe rest against the door.

Morley raised a single long finger. “Don't start on me, Garrett. I did not start this. This, this buffoon here came into the room, felt the need to threaten me and mine, and so I decided to just truss him up until you came back.” And also gag him, from the looks of it, otherwise I'm sure he'd have had plenty to say during Morley's rant.

I un-gagged him. He tried to spit at me, but before he even could, Morley had a hand around his throat. I shrugged as he looked at me, betrayed.

“Listen, buddy. You're very lucky. My friend here likes to kill people for a living. He's very very good at it. He's only not killing you because he knows I'd complain for the next several thousand years about the blood and not getting a good nights rest. So, tell me, what made you think it was a good idea to try and rough up a dark elf?”

“Y'all better not be spending any longer than necessary in this here town, we don't take kindly to the likes of you two,” he said, voice gravelly as Morley loosened his fingers just enough to let him speak.

“Lucky you! We're planning on spending a single night here, then never again! I don't know what you think we are, but I suggest you go downstairs, and either forget you ever came up here, or tell your friends how I don't give a shit if my friend here murders any of the rest of you,” I said as I untied him. Morley flashed his daggers briefly, causing the guys eyes to boggle as he fled out the room.

“Great, now they're going to try and murder us in our sleep,” I grumbled as I shoved the rickety chair against the door.

“Doubtful. You did give me carte blanche to murder them all, right?” Morley grinned wickedly. Of course he'd remember that part.

“Try to only murder them if they're actively trying to murder us. I'm going to go kill the last of this beer and sleep.” I was cranky, I'm sure he'd needle me later as I sprawled out on the bed, nursing the beer. Morley took the time to start sharpening his knives, in view of any cracks in the door.

Despite my fear that a horde of angry yokels would be breaking down the door at any moment, the night was quiet and still. If it wasn't for the locals, this would be a beautiful place to live, if you wanted to live without modern conveniences. It had a charm though, truly. Fields and fields of grain, a sense of community...

Nah, it would be boring as hell. I'd never be able to live out here, it would be far too tedious.

Morley rudely woke me up by dragging one arm out of bed, my hand hitting the hard wooden floor.

I groaned swatting at him with the hand that hadn't hit the floor. “What do you want Morley?”

Morley was already dressed, looking as though he hadn't slept at all. I knew he had though, given how often he had been shoving me back onto my side of the bed last night. At least the bed was big enough to support the two of us uncomfortably. More comfortable than the carriage though, I was right about that.

“We need to leave. Now.”

I hauled myself out of bed, throwing clothes on. That meant a particular thing. “Who did you kill, Morley?”

Morley placed a hand over his heart, looking wounded. “I killed no one! Assuming they find the kid quickly, and he doesn't starve to death. The kid from last night was rummaging through the wagon.”

Of course. Couldn't leave well enough alone. “Don't start on how this would have been avoided had you killed him. Let's just get.”

Morley tilted his head slightly. For a moment I thought he was going to do the weird guttural growing thing he did sometimes when he was annoyed, but he shrugged instead. “You're doing me a favour, and in return I'm not murdering people for your sake.”

“Since when have you cared about that?” I muttered as I pulled my shoes on, leaving the now empty cask in the room as we as quietly as possible left the inn. Not even the innkeep was up this early, the place was empty except for a few figures sleeping under tables.

The cart was still full of our gear when we got there, although the yokel was nowhere to be seen. A drop of blood hit my hand, and I glanced upwards and sighed.

“Now you're just being obstinate, Morley. No one's going to find him if he's tied to the rafters of a barn.”

The kid dangled above us, swaying slightly. The ropes Morley had used were quite well crafted, since they were supporting his entire weight. The blood was just from slight cuts he must have gotten scuffling with Morley, it didn't seem Morley had sliced him up any more than needed to truss him up like a cooked goose.

I cut him down, wrapping the ropes around him sloppily as I leaned him against the wall. He didn't fight very much, or at all. If I had to guess, which I am contractually obligated to do so as part of my job, the blood had gone to his head and he was a bit woozy. I tucked a bottle of water next to him, in case he wasn't found for a bit. Once his head cleared, he might be able to get out himself. I wasn't sure, I hadn't been able to undo all of Morley's knots, they were intricate and fiddly.

“Let's get going.” Morley had already hitched the horses back up, who seemed unperturbed by anything around them. I was worried that maybe the horses weren't actually horses any more. Most horses would be disturbed by everything that happened around them, but these horses acted like they had been to a war zone and back. Maybe they had.

No one chased us out of town, a welcome relief. Maybe we could pass through here on our way back and no one would try and kill us. Then again, with the kid alive...

I started planning out new routes home to take as I curled up in the back of the wagon, scratching away at the heavy sheets of paper I had brought with me.


	32. Chapter 32

The days dragged on as long as the plains did, unending and uneventful. Despite the horrors of the first nights, there was nothing out here. No people, not even when we saw farm houses along the road, which was quickly reverting from cobblestone to dirt. They had either been abandoned, or saw no need to make their presence known to the likes of us as we made our way onward.

It was tiring, bone tiring, to be honest. Even Morley, who was eager to get it done with, was starting to drag. 

There was just something about the country that did it to you. Unending tiredness.

Theoretically, Karentine owned all the land. In actuality, it was owned by the plains, the trees, the bandits, those who could survive out here. For a land that readily took to farming, no one wanted to live here long, and if you did, you became like the yokels we met in the days previously. 

Empty, bored, unquestioning. 

At least our trip to the Cantard had been exciting, as much as it had also been deadly. This was deadliness of a far different type. The type where you'd feel like wandering away into the fields and lying down and sleeping, and never getting back up again.

If I died, I'd rather die in my own bed, and not on the hard ground.

I grunted as the wagon wheels hit something hard on what was either the fifth or sixth day out of the small village. We had gotten into a lazy routine of not talking or really doing anything except when we stopped for the night, leaving each other to our own thoughts. So I had no warning.

I pulled myself up as the wheels continued to rattle and shake, looking out of the wagon.

“Welcome to the ruins of Carathca.”

I looked over the plains, exhaling slowly. I had seen it all before. The twisted wreckage, the burnt cobblestones. The only thing it was missing was the bodies, long since looted of any of their valuables and left to decay, or be buried by those left behind.

“How far to the gates, then?”

Morley stared up at the sun, working the math out in his head. If I knew the distance, I might be able to solve it sooner. They taught us a lot about time and distance and other useful travel things while wandering around in the swamps, so when we wandered we were slightly less lost. 

If we had gotten truly lost, we'd never have been able to bring their precious supplies back. Don't want all those tents and gear just wasting away in the wilderness, being tainted by a bunch of dead marines!

“We'll hit there as the sun goes down.”

I looked up at the sky myself. It wasn't even quite midday yet. There was no feasible way to sleep with the constant rattling of the wagon, so I made my displeasure known as I climbed up into the wagon proper, sitting next to Morley.

I was nearly thrown from the wagon as we hit a particularly large chunk of debris. I glared at the horses, would continued to ignore me, as they had on all previous days. I should have known they were saving their evil for later when I couldn't get rid of them so easily.

“Calm, Garrett. High emotions are not recommend here.”

That made me confused, so it at least got my emotions from anger to something closer to befuddled.

“Huh?”

Morley rubbed the bridge of his nose with a finger, reigns held loosely in his other hand. “Garrett, don't be obtuse. You know one of the side effects of this much death. You'd have seen it, surely.”

Oh. That. “Not really? We were warned about it, but it wasn't like there were villages out in the islands being purged. Never saw it first hand.”

“Well you will, if you continue your bellyaching.”

He didn't have to tell me what I'd see. The generals above me regaled us with those horror stories, about decimated villages, and the creatures that would arise if they felt the feelings they had felt en masse when they had been slaughtered.

I had even seen the aftermath of that doing clean-up at the end of my tour, the closest to Cantard fighting I had gotten. Never saw the creepy crawlies themselves.

“Do you think that's still an issue though? It's been several hundred years since the slaughter.”

Morley glanced over at me, tight lipped. “Elven spirits hang on almost as long as Lohgyr do to their bodies.”

“Ah.” So yes. Yes we did have to worry. Fantastic. Just the thing I wanted to worry about. Now I was worried I was worrying too much, and that I'd summon them.

“Garret, calm down. For a single person to summon any, you'd have to be having some sort of mental breakdown. So as long as you act like your normal loveable self, they won't attack.” Morley's attempt to put me at ease just made me slightly more tetchy. If someone was going to summon a horde of those things, I knew it would be me with my luck. All those big, grandiose and stupid human feelings.

I focused on the road ahead. It wasn't very long until the gates appeared in the distance. The mountain side itself had been visible for quite some time, massive and towering, breaking the clouds above, tip wreathed in ever present snow. I could see why the dark elves would choose such a place as a city, it was imposing as fuck. Jagged mountain edges, ominous clouds, and easily seen from miles around.

The gates themselves...given how far away we were from them, they must have been massive. At this distance, they were little more than a blob marring the front of the mountain, but it was clear they were an entrance into the depths that lied below. From the stories, the city was very up and down and less side to side than a normal city. Where we did have sewers and tall buildings, the interior of this city was more vertical, houses stacked on top of houses carved from the interior walls.

“Can't we make them go faster?” I groaned, watching as the mountain inched in a tiny bit at a time. 

Both of the horses shook their heads back and forth, making disgruntled sounds. Morley also frowned at me, but unlike the horses he didn't grunt. “They've been going as fast as they can without hurting anything in the back, or, you know, hurting themselves. Stop being cruel to them.”

“I'm not being cruel to them! I've been nothing if not polite and completely disinterested by them!”

Morley raised a single eyebrow against me, wounding me. He didn't say anything though, looking at the trail of broken masonry around us.

“There would have been a small city out here, by itself. A trading post, of sorts, for those who either didn't want to go into the city proper, or weren't allowed. But were allowed to trade.”

I nodded. A lot of older cities were like that, especially with old grudges. I assumed the dwarves wouldn't be allowed in...but they all did like trading with each other. Dwarven weapons for elvish crafts, especially dark elven poisons. Which the dwarves sometimes just drank straight.

Had to admire dwarven constitutions. They were some hardy folks.

I closed my eyes and leaned against one of the polls of the cart, deciding to wait it out in peace as we travelled. I also didn't really feel like sleeping, I wouldn't have had much time...or peace of mind, with all the bumping. I could plan out how to pack our supplies into two travel backpacks though, which we'd need to fill up before heading into the caverns. My mind wandered to the various packages, mentally arranging each in turn.

It was with another bump that I woke up, having apparently fallen asleep against the post. “We're here, as I'm sure you know.”

I wasn't stupid, but I kept my mouth shut even as I opened my eyes. I already knew what I'd see, and I was right.

Massive steel doors, taller than any building I'd ever seen stood before us, half slagged off from fire, half torn off by immense forces. Before the war, they'd have been imposing, now they still were, but for a different reason.

You don't mess with magic.

“So are we going to wait until morning?” The sky was turning darker, crimson sky hitting the door and colouring it in what I was sure was some kind of predictive bullshit.

Morley shook his head. “What will be the point? It'll be pitch black in there anyway.” 

“Oh. Yeah.” Oil lamps would not have graced those dark halls for some time.

“If you want to pack the packs, I'll get the horses squared away for our return.

“You're not going to let them go?” I wasn't sure how they were going to survive out here.

“There's water nearby, a small lake. It should still be there. If there is, I'll just put them up nearby with long leads. If they leave, they leave and we walk back. If not, then that'll be great. I don't expect us to be in here for weeks, Garrett.” I relaxed a bit. I had no idea how long Morley expected us to be in there. If he hoped the horses would be outside still, it shouldn't be that long. Good news for a change.

The two backpacks looked less like the packs I was use to, and some kind of monstrosity of cloth and wood, with some metal. They were huge, the metal giving the cloth support. But they held an unholy amount of items I found out, as I started to pack stuff into them. I made sure to pack all the fiddly weird boxes Morley had gotten from the potions place into his pack. I assumed he'd want to be the one to carry them.

Also because they were surprisingly heavy, and I didn't feel like wearing it.

Morley didn't say anything as he took his completed pack from me, wearing it with ease. Didn't even raise an eyebrow. He picked up one of the oil lamps I had left out, lighting it with the tinderbox, before putting the tinderbox in a pocket, holding up the lamp, looking at the doors.

With the darkness settling in, we took one last look into the wagon for any leftover supplies, before diving into the abyss.


	33. Chapter 33

“Did no one clean up after themselves? It's a mess!” Even with the centuries having gone by, it only made the disaster worse somehow. It felt like it was yesterday, and not hundreds of years ago. The only real indicators of time were the dust, cobwebs, and vermin that infested the place. Otherwise the char marks of magic looked as fresh as the day they had appeared.

There were rumours of traces of magical battles so far back in time as to be incomprehensible, looking the same way though.

I shuddered as something larger than the normal rat scurried away from the lamps both me and Morley held in front of ourselves. It had at least three eyes, and possibly several tails. I hoped it wasn't a distant cousin of Singe, because if push came to shove, I was shoving a weapon through it's head.

Come to speak of weapons, I eased a hand down to my waist, unsheathing the short dagger I had brought with us. So far the dagger had served just to prepare food, but it was small and light enough to protect me while I groped at the darkness around me. I didn't want to drag out a full weapon, not yet, I wanted my fighting hand to be open to grabbing something in case I started to fall. But I also wanted something to protect me from the creepy crawlies with too many eyes and teeth and tails. So a short knife would have to do.

I could see in the flickering light Morley was putting my fumbling about to shame. Even with the moss covered stones and eerie light, he was as nimble as if we were taking a stroll through town, not a slip or misstep yet. Wasn't even groping along the walls like I was. Delicate light steps like a ballerina.

Not that an elf would be a ballerina in a human city. It had a certain connotation in TunFaire.

Soon the darkness was overwhelming, the distant light of the stars and moon outside swallowed by the never ending depths.

“There's no vampires here, are there?” It would be a perfect place for them to roost.

“They wouldn't dare. All of the old precautions against creatures of the night should still stand. The only creatures we have to fear should be purely mortal ones.” Morley sounded a bit unsure. I was glad I had brought some silver coins with me. Even though I had brought them in case we needed some extra cash, they could be used to put the hurt on a monster or two in case.

“So just insects the size of rats, rats the size of cats, and cats the size of you?” 

Morley chuckled softly. “And cloakers the size of you.”

I recognized the area we were in from my dreams. Mostly flat, the entrance had once been beautiful. Large and open, it now felt overwhelmingly empty, devoid of people. A nerve-wracking experience. My eyes rested on the ruined statue for a moment before looking forward.

“Once we get to the great stairs, we'll find a room with strong enough vantage points, and take a rest. This will be the easy part, getting to there.”

“Easy?” I muttered, almost slipping on the wet stones. Even without rain, condensation, moisture, growing stuff was making the trek harder, especially with the lack of light. The lamps we had were well made, spun small dabs of light into warm shrouds. 

But they had a limit. And at the edge of that limit, I knew things were watching us. And while they might not be bandits, or creatures of the night even, they had teeth and claws or at the least fungus and creepy crawly things.

My hand slipped along the slime of the wall. I recognized the ooze as nothing noxious, wiping it off on my coat. 

It took all my concentration to follow Morley, so any talk was purely one sided. Morley didn't seem to mind, telling me random facts about the history of the area we were in. Information ranged from anecdotes about military strategies, to more esoteric things involving the types of parties they threw.

I sat the lamp against the ground as Morley started to get more animated. He paused, looking back at me.

I took a deep breath, coughing a bit. The air was becoming wetter and warmer. It was cool outside the mountain, but inside without the threat of cold wind, it was actually fairly pleasant. But it was tiring, keeping an eye on every step I took.

“The forest elves. They aren't forest elves, are they. They're survivors from here.”

Morley tilted his head slightly, lips pursed. “What makes you think that?”

“The stones here share a lot of the same motifs as the decorations there. Also, be honest, no one is that forestal and chipper and pure. They just traded the darkness of the earth for the darkness of the undergrowth.”

Morley's teeth almost seemed to glow in the darkness. “Yes. But no one would admit that. Humans are so easily convinced when they want to be. There use to be a commune out there, but they were weak. So some survivors fled there, and took over.”

I relaxed. “Shit, man, you could have told me that! Now I know you weren't raised by some sort of weird hippy cult and instead were raised by the survivors of a different weird death cult of the place we're currently exploring, hell, that's way better!”

Morley started to chuckle, picking up my lantern and handing it back to me. “But now I can't surprise you with my overwhelming useless knowledge of the place we're in! Come on, we're almost at the stairs.”

I rolled my eyes as I snatched the lamp back. Of course he'd want me to think he was amazing and knew all this information somehow. He liked people praising him, and since there wasn't much left for me to praise him about his physical capabilities, he had moved onto his intelligence, I guess.

We continued forward before hitting the great stairs.

My jaw actually dropped as the light fell onto the great stairs, disappearing into the distance. The stairs spiralled up and down, broken columns scattered inside the interior of the empty void that made up the stair well. The open void was larger than my house, hell, it was larger than some of the houses on the hill I'd seen. The stairs were carved into the stone, thoroughfares leading off from the steps and into the mountain. Larger platforms had larger entrances, it seemed, but it was a rats nest of mazes down there, as far as the eye and light could see. 

Which wasn't far. Even with two lamps, I could tell the stairs went to a truly dizzyingly depth. The faint echoes of creatures scurrying around the depths made me claustrophobic for a moment before I tamped it down.

“So how far are we going?”

Morley was looking at the nearby walls, empty barren rooms around us. There'd have been shops up here, selling items to visitors. “Somewhere near the bottom, the deeper you go, the more wealth you had since you could afford to pay off the builders to carve out a place for you. Come here, I've found a room.” 

A room. It might have been a shop at one point, if you had a very creative imagination for what things could have been. Shattered masonry speckled the ground of the store, the windows as they use to be caved in. We had to climb in through the doorway of the store, as it had also been filled with rubble.

“At least it's cosy?” I said as I cleared out some of the rubble, laying down my pack, unrolling the sleeping bag. Morley doused my lamp and lowered the flame on his own until it was just bright enough to illuminate the room in a flickering glow, setting it in the centre of the small room.

“Sleep, Garrett. I'll sleep when you wake up. Time doesn't exist in here any more.” I gave him an odd look before climbing into the bedroom. I didn't want to get into an existential discussion with him in the depths of a previously cult infested city. There'd be time for that later.


	34. Chapter 34

I use to think I wasn't claustrophobic. I had been into cramped spaces, even cramped spaces with other people. I had no fear of them, only of what could have lurked inside with me without my knowledge.

This was trying though. So very trying. Morley hadn't slept long, just long enough to give my mind wander. Cold spiralling hallways arranged in dizzying configurations, made to be comfortably large enough for a dark elf...of which I was not.

Not to mention years and decades and centuries of moving earth, doubtless cave ins and creatures digging out their own paths...

I wasn't looking forward to it.

We packed up in silence, removing all traces of where we had been. If there were any of the more intelligent menaces inside the city, we sure didn't want them to be able to track us down so easily. It wasn't paranoia if there really could be people here trying to find treasures as well. Those types of expeditions came and went in waves though, with the idle rich going spelunking, finding something, then sending off waves of their friends.

I hadn't heard of anyone else looking for items recently, but it wasn't quite the circles I travelled in. Or even had close friends that had friends that travelled in. If you went out spelunking into the dangers, you were either very brave, or very dead.

Sometimes both at the same time.

Time really did make no difference down in here. We could have slept for a few hours, or a few days. Maybe when we got back home it would be some kind of post apocalyptic waste land. I sincerely hoped not, I'd miss all the delicious food. And beds. And food in warm beds. I was already missing them.

“Stop grumbling Garrett, we need to get going.” Morley said as we crawled out of the long abandoned shop after one last glance over it. Our lanterns were burning brightly, as we started down the stairs.

If I had thought keeping my balance yesterday (or was it two days ago? Three? A week?) was difficult, this felt impossible.

I was sweating from exertion before hitting the third landing, and panting when we hit the fifth.

I was leaning against the broken walls by the sixth landing, willing myself to not look down into the depths. I could see neither where we came from any more, nor the depths below us, both swallowed by the ever present darkness.

“Garrett, I think there's something off of here. Looks too small for you, just stay here and don't touch anything.” Before I could even respond, Morley was crawling into the ruins of one of the ever present hallways on our right hand sides, one of the many ones I was trying to not fall into constantly. I grumbled as the tips of his boots disappeared, the light disappearing soon after.

While he had told me to not touch anything, there was no way I was going to stand here. There was one of the larger landings a few feet away, broken metal door hanging from the stone. It would be more comfortable to sit there than to stand precariously in my current situation.

I made my way gently to the landing, grabbing the door for a moment before sitting down. I placed the lantern down next to me, waiting for Morley to return.

It wasn't even five minutes before I felt my hand start to itch and burn. Looking down, it was a bright red, feeling like it was pulsing, itching. Swelling up. Everything felt warm, hot. The previously enclosed spaces felt large now, too large, cavernously large, darkness expanding, swallowing, falling.

The snake bracelet the witch had given me was hissing, eyes glowing. It was trying to do something, but failing. Maybe it wasn't meant for this. It pressed into my skin painfully.

I tried to wipe my hand on my pants, before giving up and leaning against the wall, as far away from the traitorous door as possible. I did the only thing I could do, dousing my hand with some water from the canteen and bandaging it with some soft cloth. We didn't expect to get hurt, but you always plan on it.

“Fucking...MORLEY? MORLEY!” I knew it was useless. Even just a few feet away in a stone passage meant little to no sound. Great for homes when you didn't want to hear your neighbour, terrible for when you needed a friend to help you out.

I wasn't even sure I wanted to see Morley. The thought of him nearby was doing really weird shit to me stomach and brain. Part of me was telling me he was dangerous, too dangerous, to run from him, to run from everything. The other part was telling me to take care of the threat, that one day he'd do the same to me. There was a third voice, but I refused to listen to what he had to say. His opinion was terrible.

I was sweating still, but not from the exercise. I was also shaking, harder than I had even during the military days of constant, never ending toil.

I didn't even hear his footsteps. Maybe I wouldn't have heard them even if I hadn't been an idiot and touched the gates. He was quieter than death itself when he wanted to be.

“Garrett?” Morley asked.

I looked up, briefly. A mistake. A terrible mistake. The voices started screaming at me to do something. All of them, at once.

I clung to the ground for dear life, fingers digging into the dusty stone. I was panting now, trying to focus on something, anything, other than the person in front of me. I focused on at least telling him what happened so he wouldn't do the same.

“Touched door. Burning. Don't come closer.” I don't know if he understood, but he didn't come any closer, instead looking over at the nearby door. I rested my head on my knees, panting still. It was physically painful to not be doing something currently. I'm not sure which voice I should have gone with, which might have been what saved me. Maybe it was just my complete stubborn pigheaded nature. I had been told I was more stubborn than a mule.

I could hear the sound of him rummaging through his backpack. I could even imagine it, seated nearby, open it. Was he finding something to cure me? Or was he looking for something to put me out of my misery?

I didn't want to die in an abandoned city, so far away from my delicious bed. But I trusted Morley to kill me if I needed to be put down before changing into some kind of vicious monster. Wouldn't mean I'd going quietly. 

Mostly by whining.

I heard Morley gently placed a glass bottle down near me, the heavy glass clinking against the stone.

I raised my head just enough to stare at it, the dark blue liquid inside scintillating in the light, looking almost like the sky so far above, small flickers of light deep inside. “Now-”

“Will it put me out of my misery quickly?” I said, interrupting Morley.

Morley sighed, resting his head in his hand, looking at me bemused. The third voice started to make a louder clatter at the back of my head. I ignored it, looking away from Morley, staring at only the bottle, ignoring everything else. A beautiful bottle filled with hopefully something that would kill me quickly. Dark elf poisons weren't kind though, so I sort of doubted it.

“As I was saying. Now, it won't taste good, but you'll be good in an hour or two, and good enough to go in maybe fifteen minutes.” With the realization that it would cure me and not cause me to explode or something, I snatched it up, chugging it down in one big gulp.

Oh god, it was absolutely vile. I had tasted some horrific things in my day, notably dishes at Morley's restaurant and my own cooking, but sweet gods above, this was terrible. It was as though every creature that ever hated me had taken this hate, distilled it down, melted it in a vat that once was used to birth shapeshifters, then ran that through a few gallons of swamp water, then bottled it.

I spent the next few minutes on the floor, howling at the injustices of the world, alternating between clutching my throat and stomach, gagging the entire time as I forced myself to keep it down. I also slipped a few curses in against anyone I could imagine, mostly involving gods, friends, and various farm animals. 

I lay gasping on the floor, staring at the ceiling in the warm light of the lanterns.

Morley knelt down next to me, staring at me. “Are you quite done now?” he said. Amused, he found it funny. If I wasn't currently experiencing it, it might have been funny. It was decidedly unfunny having it happen first hand.

“What was it?”

Instead of answering, he tilted his head, picking up the bottle, looking it over. “How do you feel?”

“Like someone was burning me up from the inside. Is there more of that stuff around? Is it new?” I unwrapped my hand, looking it over. It had returned to it's normal colour, a bit of blood around the fingernails. Looked more gruesome than it was. I wrapped it back up. I could just hold onto the lantern by shoving my entire hand through the carrying loop, and use my good hand to feel the wall.

“I'm surprised you didn't try and attack me.” He knew what the stuff was? He also wasn't looking directly at me any more.

“You know what it is? Morley, stop being coy, what the fuck was it? What was it doing?” 

Morley's smile this time was something akin to pity. “I'm sure you know what your flight or fight response feels like at this point, Garrett.”

I still felt a bit woozy, but I still knew when Morley was being condescending.

“Stop being a condescending git.” Morley ignored it, looking over my hand, checking on my bandage job. It was a good job, perfectly fine. I stood up, shoving my hand through the lantern. The flame wasn't big enough to worry that it might catch the bandage on fire.

I hoped.

“It's not new poison. It's very very old. We should get going, it's a long way down. Unless you want to fling yourself into the void instead.” I grumbled as we started down again. I was glad to be entertainment for the annoyingly nearly perfect person traipsing down the stairs in front of me.


	35. Chapter 35

I still felt uncomfortably warm as we sat down at the next large landing. I had lost track of how far we had gone, concentrating on the lantern and walls in turn, making sure I didn't accidentally fling myself down the centre of the stairwell. This landing didn't have any of the metal doors, instead it appeared it might have once been the entrance to a home, or at least some kind of entertainment complex. Strips of tattered cloth hung from the walls, stained from ancient blood and mildew, looking as though they'd fall apart if I breathed on them. Even without breathing on them, some decayed just from being touched with light for the first time in decades. 

There was a smaller room off the main entrance, presumably some kind of coat room previously. If there had been coats in here, the damp cavern air had destroyed them. Morley sat his lantern down in the centre of the room before starting to barricade the area where the door had been with debris.

“Do you expect trouble?” I asked, pulling out the dry rations we had. I grimaced at them. I knew we were going to have to eat the bar food, but I had forgotten just how disappointing it was.

“I expect if the medicine wasn't strong enough, that'll you'll disappear into the warrens when it gets worse again.” I blinked slowly at his back. You had to love when someone didn't want to tell you that it might not have worked. So I might still want to kill him. Or run away. Or the third voice, but we were throwing that voice into the void, because that voice just wanted me to die.

Morley looked back at me, grinning. The grin faded when he saw my face. “Calm down, Garrett. I'm sure you're fine. It's just a precaution in the very off chance it happens.”

“Ahuh, right. I'm going to sleep.”

“You...uh, might not...” Morley said, but I ignored him, crawling into the bedroll, shoving the uneaten bar of food back into the pack I was now using as a pillow. A lumpy, painful pillow. I didn't want to hear it. If I was going to die from some stupid ancient elven poison, I wanted to go in my sleep.

Darkness enclosed around me quicker than I expected, bedroll barely keeping me warm. I could feel Morley kneel down next to me, saying something, but I was already asleep before I could tell what he was saying.


	36. Chapter 36

A veritably hellscape rolled out in front of me, toiling darkness close at hand. Fire and destruction roared around me, the sounds of death and gore nearby. I had thought these dreams were over. 

“You're afraid you'll always be like this, that it will scare people away,” a soft voice said near me. I whirled around, eyes wide.

A short elven woman stood nearby, clad in pure black, darker than even the encroaching chaos. Her eyes were like the night sky, empty and dark. The longer I stared, the more afraid I was of falling into them. She smiled, and the change was instant. Her eyes became a blinding white before settling, a simple grey colour. Completely normal eyes.

I shielded my eyes anyway, trying to reach for a weapon I knew wouldn't be there.

She just stood there, smiling.

“Who are you?” I finally asked. My throat felt like I hadn't had a drink in a million years, and she looked like the best glass of ice water I had ever seen. 

Her smile grew wider.

“We've met before.”

We had? Oh. We **had.**

“I always assumed you, uh, be all hooded and stuff. Also, am I dead?”

She smiled, holding her arms up. Dust billowed out from behind her, framing her, making her appear as what I thought she'd be when I finally met her. She lowered her arms slowly, tilting her head.

“You are not dead, Garrett. You are very close. Do you know what can save you from me?”

I started to sweat. I hated riddles. I hated riddles against unfathomably ancient things that didn't really exist. Surely she didn't exist?

The gods existed though, even if they weren't really what we all had thought they would be.

I tried to think of all the stories I had heard about cheating the situation I found myself in. Old heroes, legends, anything, anything...

I sucked at it. I decided to try the old Garrett tactic. If I was going to die, it was going to be my way. “No idea.”

She laughed. Blood began seeping out the corner of my eyes, tinting everything crimson. I raised a hand to my forehead, trying to not groan.

“Oh Garrett. You are truly oblivious, aren't you? A proper detective, able to find anything, except when it comes to your own life.”

“I take umbrage at that!” I said with a huff. The bleeding had stopped, but the tingle was still there.

“Of course you do. Go now, and try to see the truth. We will not meet many more times.”

She swirled around, the scent of mildew and rotted wood rising up before she disappeared. I sat down in the ruined battlefield, breathing in slowly, relaxing in the aftermath.


	37. Chapter 37

“GARRETT DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME NOW”

I shrieked at the shouts at me, rolling around. I was no longer in my bedroll. A haphazard fire of burnable objects was in the centre of the room, a small pot of some foul liquid over top of it. A hot bottle was pressed against my head, which fell away as rolled around like a wounded thunderlizard.

“Garrett!” Morley looked downright terrible. His eyes were wide, hair slicked against his head from the heat and moisture in the room. He looked like he had been awake for quite some time.

I slowly dragged myself up, leaning against the nearby wall. Pieces of clothing fell off of me. I was bundled up like I was hiking into the deepest reaches of the north, and not an underground city.

“Morley?” It felt like someone had injected ice into my bones. They were thawing though.

Morley relaxed, sitting down. For a moment, he held his head in his hands. Was he crying?

The thought of Morley crying absolutely terrified me. When he looked up, he seemed back to his normal slightly cocky self.

“You're alive. You can't sleep after that, you need to stay awake the entire time the potion is active, or it freezes you up.”

I pulled clothing off of me, stacking it nearby.

“Sorry about that.”

“You could have died, Garrett. I would have had to drag your frozen carcass to the surface, take you back to the Dead Man, back to Singe and Dean, and tell them “Oh, sorry about that, he died in a deep dark cave, here's his body,” and that's not allowed. You are not going to die near me.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Guess that means I'm safe from you ever killing me.”

Morley turned crimson. It looked odd in the available light. He inched closer, eyes wide. “Garrett.”

“I'm truly sorry Morley, okay? Can we just...get this thing we need to find and get out? Hopefully the worst of it's over.”

Morley made complicated patterns in front of himself. I recognized them. Old symbols of protection. “Don't do that Garrett. Don't tempt them.”

I waved a hand at him as I helped him pack up the clothes. Despite the abuse I'd taken over the last few hours, I was starting to feel better than I had when we had first started down into the caverns. Morley breathed in and out slowly before nodding, packing everything back up, lighting the lamps and scattering the fire.


	38. Chapter 38

The air got ever more murky as we went lower and lower, the sounds of creatures echoing in the air around us. The eyes that I was sure were watching us got more numerous, the feeling oppressive. I learned to not look either up or down, not for the fear of falling, but the fear of the things that crept in the night. I knew why people feared the night, I did not need reminders.

I was out of my depths, here, underground. I was not a hunter of relics or monsters. But I couldn't leave a friend in the dark when they had done so much for me.

“If you're done grumbling back there, I think we're done with the stairs,” Morley said, shining a light downwards. The never ending pit of darkness had changed to water, just as dark as the emptiness.

Something moved under the surface of the water.

“Mooorley?”

“Yeah, we should...get inside,” Morley said as he inched away from the water and towards the still glittering golden gates that loomed over the last landing before the stairs dove into the murky water.

“Shit fuck,” I managed to shout as a thin tendril broke the surface of the water, probing the air around it. I launched myself through the gates, dragging Morley with me. The tendril crashed against the gates, quickly finding a gap as we continued to run, turning down the hallway.

“How long is that fucking thing?” I gasped, looking back to see the thing still questing for us.

“How would I know?” Morley shouted back before we ducked down a side hall, panting, trying to catching our breath. Well, my breath. Morley seemed just fine.

“Is this even where we need to be?”

“No.”

“Of fucking course. Fucking hell. Was it a waste?” I smashed my hand against the wall before cursing bitterly, checking the bandage. It had managed to stop me from hurting my hand more, but only just.

“There are other ways further down. We're in the royal quarters, so there will always be ways further down.” 

I grumbled but nodded, taking a short peek outside. The tentacle had given up, it seemed. No sign of it nearby. Fuck, how were we going to get back out? I had no idea. We'd have to figure something out when we got to that point again. I sighed. Why couldn't this have been easy? Why couldn't the artifact or whatever it was just have been on some elves end table as a decoration?

My breath caught in my throat as our lamps swung to reveal a massive gallery in front of us, nearly untouched by time. Hanging lamps of gold and crystal hung from the ceiling far over head, barely visible even as I opened the flame of the lantern more. The floor we walked on was gorgeous marble, only a few patches of moss visible where the smooth stone had been chipped by time or creatures. It was larger than the main thoroughfare in TunFaire, pillars of mossy green reaching to the ceiling above in orderly rows.

“Holy shit.”

“Welcome to Carathca,” Morley said, whirling around in a circle and making a neat bow before standing upright with a grin.

I exhaled slowly, stretching. Morley watched me silently, although the way he was twitching ever so slightly meant he was paying attention to the open space around us.

“So what exactly are we finding again? Something cobalt?” Morley nodded, looking around.

“Might be difficult-”

“It's already been difficult!”

Morley ignored me, continuing. “It might be difficult. They had a thing for blue things. And silver things.”

Oh yes, he hadn't said if it was cobalt the colour or cobalt the mineral...

We continued deeper into the hall as Morley talked.

“The wording used for the word cage is oddly worrying, the word they used is an older word that seems to be more metaphysical, although it can have alternate meanings, depending on the inflection, but I never learned the really old forms of the words, so...”

“Could it be that?” I said, as we reached the far back wall after some fifteen minutes of walking. An ornate platform rose in front of, on top of which were a pair of ornate chairs. Spikes of jagged silver rose from the faded blue chairs, piercing the darkness, light hitting them and crinkling off into various corners and possibly other dimensions.

Morley looked at them slowly. “The royal thrones? Ahh...” Morley climbed up the stairs to the thrones carefully. I watched, not stepping up yet. I wasn't sure I should. I could imagine how imposing it would have been though, to come into this massive opulent palace far below ground, seeing gorgeous men and women milling around, only to see this multicoloured platform leading up to a pair of rather simple seats. But the king and queen would have been the centrepiece, dressed to the nines, or tens even. They were the real beauty to behold.

“Garrett! What are you doing down there?” Morley called from above. I shrugged, stepping up onto the stairs. I shivered for a moment, sure I was breaking some weird law, before shrugging it off. Old laws could suck it.

I looked down as the eyes on the snake bracelet glowed green for a moment, before settling coolly against my skin.

“Please tell me it's not a pair of chairs. How are we going to get a pair of chairs back upstairs? Although it's the first good thing that's happened, finding it without having to crawl through rat infested warrens to get lower or something.” 

Morley ran a finger along the chairs, shuddering. “Unfortunately for you, or fortunately, our quest is at an end. These are certainly it. One of the alternate meanings can mean throne, although...I'm not sure.”

I sat down on the chair, surveying the area around me. Despite being made for a smaller frame, it contained my weight nicely, not even creaking. “Not going to join me, my princess?” I said, smirking. Morley rolled his eyes at me, looking over the chair slightly apprehensively. “Sit down, Morley, take a break.”

Morley shrugged, taking off his pack as he did so. That might have been more comfortable than my own ideas, where I just smashed it up against the back of the chair.

He sat down on the throne next to me, grasping the hand rest.


	39. Chapter 39

Pain coursed every part of my body, shocks radiating from my head and travelling all the way down to my toes. My eyes had slammed shut instinctively, but the pain refused to stop. I couldn't even shout to see if Morley was okay, as the pain overtook me so badly it felt like I was floating, free of body or earth.

The first thing I became aware of as I floated back down was the pain was still there. Everything felt twitchy. Everything felt on end, as though I had passed through some ethereal veil and came out the other side, and the other side was filled with bees.

Bees? I also felt confused. There were thoughts in my head I didn't remember thinking. Or memories, not thoughts. My thinking was my own.

My body hurt in places I was not use to it hurting to. I tried to flex my hand before giving up. Everything felt so much lighter and springy. I didn't like it. I didn't like many things, but this thing was something I disliked the most of all.

“Morley?”

That was not my voice. That was a voice that sounded very familiar, and yet not at all. I cracked one eye open.

“Ohhhh man...this is trippy as fuck,” I said, looking down at neatly manicured nails. “Hoooly shit.”

“Stop making me say those things.” My own voice. Except not, it also sounded off. I'd never heard my own voice from outside my body. I sounded all coarse and gruff. Maybe I sounded coarse and gruff all the time.

Staring back at me was myself. Except it wasn't me, since I was me. Except I wasn't. 

My head started to hurt again.

I knew my own expressions way better than I knew whatever expressions were likely gracing my own (not my own) face. The person inside what is...was, my body, was annoyed. 

Well I was annoyed also! For fucks sake, what the fuck had happened.

I squeezed my eyes shut. No, my body did. I watched it. I was fine. “Garrett. Please. I'm trying to figure out how to undo this. Quickly.” 

Oh yeah. That would be a good idea. I sure as fuck couldn't be Morley. I was no killer for hire. Or a restaurateur. Or whatever Morley was any more.

The nagging sense of wrongness was back, deep down inside somewhere. Odd memories surfaced, and not from my point of view. Not from a Garrett point of view. As I focused on thinking about how Morley was a killer for hire, I could see faces I hadn't known, and never saw. Some I recognized as people who had gotten on the wrong side of someone else, some as those never found.

“You killed-”

“Stop thinking, Garrett. Please.” Morley looked desperate. I looked desperate, I guess. I didn't like the look on my face. It looked all out of place and sad, like I was some giant whipped puppy.

“If I'm not allowed to curse in your body, you're not allowed to make my face do...that...” I said, waving Morley's hand at my face.

“Fine.” Morley's face went serious, all hard lines and calmness. It suited my body much better.

It wasn't really like Morley to give up so easily. What memories did he have that he didn't want little old Garrett seeing?

I slowly dug through memories of death, of countless women, so many they ran together, of debauchery, of study, of kindness, of things I never knew, all while I stood up, studying the chair underneath me. Magical constructs usually had some kind of apparatus or design or something explaining what it was used for.

“Why would they make such a stupid device?” I said, catching myself before I called it a fucking stupid device. Gotta keep on those toes, Garrett. Nimble elven toes.

I bounced around a bit, looking down at myself. I was so quick! And nimble! Fuck, I could see why Morley exercised if it meant staying in this kind of shape. 

I stopped spinning around when I heard Morley sigh. He was looking at me strangely again. It wasn't my fault my body wasn't as springy. Or light. Or nimble.

Okay maybe it was entirely my fault.

“I don't know about you, Garrett, but I'd like to be back in my own body before we left here? Your body sort of sucks.”

“Hey!” I sputtered. I had no good comeback for that. My body did sort of suck. But only at certain things. I knew for a fact I was considerably stronger than Morley in raw muscle still, and height alone was an advantage. It felt odd to be looking up at Morley. Myself. Up at the body that use to be me. My head hurt.

Fuck it was all so confusing, Morley was right and we should change back.

“Stop...stop doing that!” Garrett said. Wait no. I didn't say that. Having a weird mishmash of Morley's memories and my own was making me forget who I was. My own memories were all still very much my own, but they felt like I couldn't quite recall them as easily.

“What if...we just sat in the opposite chairs?” Morley Garrett looked at me like I was mad, but shrugged.

“I've got no better idea.”

We both sat down and closed our eyes.

Nothing happened. I groaned and opened my eyes.

“Oh!” It had worked. I guess shoving a person back into their body was easier than taking them out. There was no pain in it, no sensation at all. No floating, no weird light. Just suddenly we were back.

Morley looked visibly relieved. I grinned at him. “You don't have to look so relaxed, my body wasn't that bad.” I knew why he was relieved. But that was something I was going to keep close to my chest. I hadn't even fully unpacked that memory he had of me. That was something I'd need to think about over the course of several days. Or weeks. Or the rest of time.

“It doesn't answer why your friends there want this thing. Do you think they know what it does?”

Morley's face went ashen. He had figured out something before I had. “What?”

“I'm pretty sure they knew I was going to ask you for help.”

“They want to get at me? Or use it against me?” A few more solid ideas percolated around, bubbling up in my head. A more solid thought appeared. “I think I see.”

“Yeah, I think I do also. We'll figure something out when we get back. I'm sure they'll be waiting for us.”

I didn't like this. I hadn't like it before, but I hated it even more now. Devious dark elven plans. I was a predictable pawn when it came to helping my friends, I guess. My assets were also well known at this point. I breathed in and out slowly as I stood up again, testing out my old body again. Seemed normal. Having an elf hide in it didn't seem to harm it much.

I eyed the chairs. “So how the fuck are we getting them out?” Luckily they weren't attached to each other or the floor, but that didn't mean they weren't still rather large chairs.

“We're going to tie one to each of our backs, and haul them out? You'll need your hands to steady you up the stairs.” Oh, yes. We had brought rope with us. I had assumed we'd be dragging the suckers behind us, but we could each carry one on our backs. We had used quite a bit of our supplies, so the packs were lighter. The chairs were heavier than the lost supplies, but we'd make do.

“And how are we getting past old tentacly back there?”

That gave Morley a pause. “Uhm.”

A faint grin twitched across my face. I couldn't help it. It was always a great feeling to remember something when he didn't. A shitty feeling also, since I too was stuck down here past the tentacled creature. 

“Maybe it sleeps?” 

“And how will we test that? By running out into the room and waiting for it to grab us?”

“...maybe we could throw some food down for it?”

“Why not both? Try to run past it, if we hear it waking up, throw shit into the water for it to focus on, and keep climbing the stairs. But first...let's sleep.”

“Where? Here, behind the chairs?”

“Why not? Where else is there in here? It's all open.” Morley relented and we rolled out the bedrooms and turned down my lantern, dousing his for the night. We both kept a wide berth from the chairs we had to carry tomorrow, unsure how far away they worked. Better safe than sorry and wake up as the other...or wake up as some weird creepy crawly that decided to sit on the other chair that night.


	40. Chapter 40

Waking up the next morning was both a great relief, and a terrible curse. We had made it through the night, intact and in our proper bodies. After a brief recount to make completely sure of that fact, we packed everything up and contemplated the chairs. 

“The best course of action would be for me to lash it around you and your pack while you're wearing the pack, to make sure it's secure, and then the opposite,” Morley said, lifting up one of the chairs gently.

I hated the idea of ropes binding me up, but I really had no choice, now did I. We had to get these stupid relics out of here, hell or high water. I shouldn't think that though, or else we'd leave the room and see high water had actually come to town.

“I'll do you first, then you do me?” Morley wavered for a moment before agreeing. My knot work was fairly neat, I thought, even if Morley wiggled a bit and moved some cords. I guess certain areas were more sensitive on elves than humans. It would have worked perfectly well for another marine. I shrugged, turning around.

Morley was far quicker than I had been, securing the chair in such a way I was fairly certain that it wasn't coming off without assistance. “Impressive.”

“I've had practice.”

“I saw.”

Morley jerked the ropes around me tighter, causing me to wince. Maybe I shouldn't suggest I remembered his memories at all. Seemed like a bad idea.

“Is your hand any better?”

Oh. Right. I un-bandaged it, looking at the skin. It seemed completely normal, other than the traces of dried blood. I had forgotten to check before binding Morley up, but I should have realized it was better when I was able to cinch knots without any hassle. Once we were both secured, we relit the lamps and headed out.

There continued to be nothing in the room this deep, allowing us to reach the broken doors unharmed. It took a bit to get use to walking with something so bulky on our backs, but we soon had no trouble.

Well, Morley had no trouble. I apparently sounded like a herd of thunder lizards, according to Morley. Hopefully the tentacled beast didn't like thunder lizards. It lived underground, I'm sure it hated them.

“Stop whining. Hopefully it's not there.”

I disagreed. Heartily. I already saw the signs that something was moving deep in the water. “Up we go. Start hauling ass Morley.”

Morley didn't say anything, but agreed, the two of us fleeing up the stairs as the water started to churn.

“Fuck fuck fuck,” I shouted, rummaging through my pockets. I had to throw something at it to slow it down. Anything at all. 

A small bottle whizzed past me as a tentacle crept up the wall nearby, smacking the tentacle head on.

The bottle cracked, weeping an odd pink mist.

“Run, Garrett. And don't breath that in,” Morley said, almost from yards ahead of me. I sprinted up the stairs as fast as I could without falling in, only breathing when we both made it to a larger landing.

Looking over, the creature seemed to be slamming it's tentacles into the wall, churning the water in a pained look display. “What was that?”

Morley looked amused. “I don't know. The witch said it would drive any creature away, for a time. I don't know what it's doing.” We watched for a moment before looking upwards, into the icy abyss. 

I sighed, but continued to climb upwards. The thrashing of the beast below eventually faded, leaving only dripping water and silence.


	41. Chapter 41

“So you think they-”

“Shhh.”

“But don't you think your-”

“Garrett, shut up and listen.”

I shut up and listened. Everything sounded as normal as possible for several hundred feet below the earth. Listening closer though....there was a faint, rhythmic sound from below. And the sound of something creeping along the walls.

“Oh fuck,” I whispered as I saw the very tips of the tentacles thing crawling up the wall. It was hauling itself up the sides through sheer force of ugly, trying to find us.

“What the fuck was in that bottle!” I shouted as we started to practically run up the stairs, scrambling to keep footing as we did so, clinging to the walls as the tentacles seemed to draw ever closer. Rocks and stones went flying as we flew faster and faster, the creature continuing to gain, drag old masonry and long broken stones down into the water beneath it.

It started to howl as we all got closer to the top, suckers pull out brittle bricks and flinging them at us, barely missing as we scrambled over the last step and into the wide open space above, throwing ourselves onto the ground before scrambling away.

A single long tentacle flicked over the edge, catching us off guard as we tried to catch our breath, wrapping around Morley's ankle.

“Oh fu-” Morley started to say before I hauled out my knife and slammed it into the creature, causing it to shriek in pain. Pale pink ichor leaked from the wound as it jerked the tentacle back down into the hole, leaving us alone at least. My knife went with it, lodged into the creatures tentacle. I didn't want to try and get it back. I'd just order another one when we were in town.

“The only way this could get worse-”

“DON'T GARRET,” Morley shouted, standing up slowly. I shut my mouth, checking over the chair on his back. Still in one piece. Old magic, really old magic, could make something stronger than it appeared. I guess if you made a wildly powerful artifact, you'd want it to last and not be broken by a single tumble or two.

We both limped out of the cavern, and into the chilly night.

Of all the miracles to occur, the horses were still there, happy and sound. The cart was as well, untouched. No one had been by, which to be fair, not many people were going to bother with a long abandoned city when it was getting so close to winter.

Speaking of which, it had snowed at some point while we were in there, the horses, cart, and everything else covered in a thin layer of pure white.

It had been awhile since I had seen truly fresh snow. Snow landing inside TunFaire was besmirched before it even landed, turning dull and dirty from the heavy air. It did a good job of cleaning the air, making it taste all that much crisper, but at the expense of itself.

The air here felt almost comically pure, like breathing in air that was around at the start of the world.

“Garrett, stop looking up at the snow all gape mouthed, and get in the wagon.”

I blinked. Morley had loaded up the chairs into the wagon already. I knew he'd be able to wiggle out of his own, but I didn't expect him to be able to take mine off without realizing it. I shivered slightly before climbing up onto the wagon, dragging a blanket covered in snow from the back, shaking it off. It must have only snowed recently, as it wasn't wet yet.

The horses were disgruntled to be tied back up to the wagon, but Morley got them hitched up, before we left the crumbling city behind us.

I hoped it would crumble completely as we left, as some sort of significant act, but it refused. Nothing ever wanted to be as dramatic as I wanted it to be.

I pulled the blanket closer around myself.


	42. Chapter 42

We sped along at a nearly dangerous clip, as fast as possible. Our supplies were low, although we still had some rations left. I had eaten rations before, and didn't really want to spend the next week eating them...and then a week after eating bugs. Again. Morley would be thrilled to eat bugs. Or at least, the leaves the bugs were eating before he stole them from them.

It had turned absolutely bitterly cold while we were inside, breath freezing before it left my mouth. We had extra clothes in our packs, in case they got wet or destroyed while we were below, which I dragged out as we bumped over the cobblestones.

A particularly bad bump sent the clothes flying and my eyes twitching at the horses as Morley slowed the wagon. I stomped off and gathered up the clothes, tempted to smack the horse. I know Morley would tell Playmate if I did though, and instead just hopped back up onto the wagon, putting the knit cap and mittens on before I did, so the horses couldn't make me drop them.

“They're cold too,” Morley said, pulling a cap over his own pointed ears. I ignored him and the horses, closing my eyes as I took a deep breath in.

Fuck, even the air hurt. The air wasn't suppose to feel like daggers of ice, that wasn't proper at all.

“We'll sleep before we hit the town, then try and make it through the town and the forest in a day.” I tried to raise an eyebrow at Morley and failed. They were frozen to my skull. It was a gruelling pace, but if it got us home quicker I'd do it.

All I had to do was sleep in the back and wait for Morley to wake me.

Which is what I did, sprawling backwards into the nearly empty wagon, using a mostly empty pack as a pillow and a now slightly damp and less snow covered blanket as...well, a blanket. I shoved the chairs to the side, curled around the pair like an uncomfortable S.

I woke up from a dreamless sleep, cold and aching. For the heat that I had felt deep in the caves, it felt like I'd never be warm again. I struggled to open my eyes, icing gluing them shut.

I was covered in snow, mounds of it. I shook it off as I sat upright in the wagon. Blinking my eyes, I could make out the smokestacks of the town nearby.

“Why can't we just tell all the people to shove it and sleep where it's warm?” I whined before huddling next to the fire Morley had made. There were still a few bundled pieces of wood attached to the wagon. Even wet, they'd burn eventually. And they did, warming us up just enough to get through the night.

While Morley slept, I worked out what his friends were planning on doing with some chairs that could switch peoples brains around. I was fairly certain they knew I'd be going with Morley. Most people knew we were friends, it wasn't a secret. Most people also knew my greatest asset was the Dead Man. I had a sinking feeling they were going to try and sneak someone that wasn't me in to either take out the Dead Man, or to just take him.

My stomach settled uneasily as I gnawed on a shitty ration pack. I wasn't sure what to do if that was their plan. I doubted we'd get to the Dead Man before they got to us, under the guise of collecting the artifacts. There'd be no way to warn him that I wasn't me.

My unease turned to annoyance as I saw the flickering light of torches approaching from the town. I reached into the wagon and nudged Morley, who was on his feet faster than I could point out the issue. We both watched as they milled around for awhile, far enough away to not make out any faces.

“Suggestions?”

“We uh....have the horses book it through the town and just keep going until we hit the forest?”

Morley pondered the suggestion.

“Or I just kill them all.”

I rubbed my forehead. “We can't kill an entire town of people just because they're a bunch of assholes.”

“Why not?”

“Because it'll be found, and we'll be questioned, and it'll just be a horrific mess! Also, it's A BAD THING TO DO.”

The crowd withdraw a bit. We weren't being exactly quiet.

“We could kill them and burn the town down as we leave. No one will miss them.” I saw where Morley was going with it, as the torches withdrew a bit more.

I grumbled. “We'll kill them only if they attack first, okay? If they try and start anything, then whatever. But not until then, okay?”

The torches practically fled back into the town. Easily spooked people, having heard stories about dark elf assassins. 

There was no way Morley would have been able to kill them all. He'd have put a very serious dent into the small town's population, sure, but there was a lot of them, and one of him. Two of us, since I couldn't just let him die, but we'd still both wind up dead or unconscious, which might as well be dead.


	43. Chapter 43

The town was empty when we got there.

Not empty as in someone had murdered everyone though. More like empty as in everyone was hiding. I was relieved. I really didn't like having an entire road just cut off because Morley decided to go and stab everyone for being racist. There were plenty of racists in TunFaire he could kill if he wanted to, that nobody would miss.

Nobody would miss these guys either, but the government would be a bit miffed if an entire farming community was just suddenly depopulated. 

I saw faces staring through windows as we passed, before quickly going away. A bit of fear, just enough to make them think twice about messing with us, was far better than having to actually mess with anyone. Because then they'd learn a mob always beats even the most well trained fighter. Of which I am not. And Morley did better in the dark, not in a straight up fight. But humans were predictable, and easily scared. If they thought we were some kind of weird assassins that could kill all them, so be it.

We hit the forest around midday, the sun filtering through the trees, making it appear darker than it really was.

“They're going to be waiting for us when we get back.”

Morley was quiet, but nodded. We both knew his lovely elven council was going to be waiting for our return.

“They want the Dead Man.” The lack of reaction from Morley made it clear he thought the same thing. Guess the cult that had once lived in the city had just taken up residence elsewhere. The Dead Man was a poorly kept secret, and finding out he was behind the death...well, second death of the “God” of that cult, well...guess the cult finally decided to do something.

Took them forever, but elves could wait that long I guess. Not like they had anything better to do than follow a cult that was suppose to be dead now.

Elves were weird.

“They're going to use the chairs to switch me and one of them to get inside the house?” It was a theory I had been working on since we both had sat in the chairs. 

Morley shifted on the wagon, holding the reigns steady. “Hadn't thought of that, but seems like that's the most likely option. I'd have thought they'd just get you to go in yourself with threats, but-”

“The Dead Man would read those thoughts and throw everyone out into the street.”

“Yeah.”

“There's no way we'll get to the house before they get to us. So....what are we going to do?”

We both sat in silence as we tried to think of something. There'd be no way to send a letter out that quickly, not to mention they might be looking out for that.

“I have an idea.”

“I already hate it.”

“So do I, but it might be the only way.” God I hated my own idea. It sucked. It would suck. But it might be the only way to solve the issue. A terrible idea.


	44. Chapter 44

The cart clattered onwards as we hit the dirty plains outside the city, the large estate homes nearby, but far enough away from the road that those who lived in them wouldn't be disturbed by the common folk coming and going. There was activity outside some of the homes, it seemed like either some people were stocking up on holiday food early, or we had spent longer underground than I had hoped.

“There they are.” I could just see a contingent of dark elves loitering outside the city. My eyes flickered over the group, assessing the strength. There were a lot of them, and were carrying quite a bit of weaponry.

“Lovely.”

The horses slowed down as they approached us.

“Good to see you made it back,” one of them said. Tall. Lithe. An ex assassin, and consort to the queen. Well. That meant he was still an assassin, I supposed.

“All in one piece. And with artifact to boot.” I waved an arm behind me laconically, showing the chairs. 

Their grins widened. I sighed internally. I knew what was going to come next. But I had to play along.

“So now you have them if we could-”

“If you could come with us? We'd be pleased to escort you.”

“Of course.”

Several of the elves hopped up into the wagon, one other pushing us to the side and taking over the reigns, taking us into the city and down the familiar winding streets.

“Any trouble?” I knew they didn't really expect an answer. We both shrugged at the same time. “You're right, it doesn't matter.”

The air turned from cold and filled with the faint scent of evergreens to cold and filled with smoke. I suppressed the urge to cough, lips twitching slightly as one of the younger elves was unable to stop himself, coughing in the sludge that was the city. They weren't use to the dirt of TunFaire yet, I guessed.

The trip to the warehouses wasn't long. It had been so long outside the city, it felt like I could smell where every single fish had come from. And where it had died, bleeding out onto the docks of boats nearby.

The two youngest elves pulled the chairs out of the back, lugging them inside. I looked straight ahead, not looking up to check on Morley. Couldn't give away anything. Might be suspicious.

We were escorted inside. A lovely elven lady covered in strips of bloody fabric sat on a decadent throne. 

“Ah.” The cult was not very subtle sometimes. Especially when they thought they had won.

She smiled, mouth full of teeth and dark promises, bright bloody red tongue visible. Part of a ritual, I suppose. “Pleased to finally see you Mr. Dotes. And Garrett. We've heard so much about you.”

We stayed silent. She shrugged, unconcerned.

“Place the chairs out.” The two struggled with them a bit before placing them down, side by side. I studied them passively. Exactly as they were before, maybe a little chipped from their trip out of the caverns.

“Now, let's see if they work? How about a test subject? Garrett, if you will?” She smiled, blindingly bright before nodding at the chairs. Her own consort sat down on the other chair.

I sat down, as they tied me up.

Nothing happened. I relaxed slightly, grinning.

“What's happening. Why are you smiling Morley? Did you take his weapons?” 

I jerked away from the two youngest elves, sending them off balance as I tossed Garrett one of my knives, tumbling over to him and slicing off the ropes. 

“Such green elves,” we both said, eyeing the now armed elves in front of us. 

“What-”

“There are things in the dark you don't wish to know,” we both said before we both darted out, whirling around the dark elves, blades dancing. Everything was flashing in the distant streaks of light fading in the windows, the oil lamps casting a dim glow around the room.

The confusion we caused gave us enough of an advantage to leave us with only the Queen and her Consort left standing. The queen's features looked as though they were etched from blood, fury and hatred rising around her, almost palatable.

“I don't know what happened down there, but I will have my revenge against Garrett. Morley! Stop this!” the Queen howled as we both stood there, facing her.

We both smiled at her, tilting our heads slightly. It unnerved her, even her consort. For two elves who had lived so long, it was achingly easy to scare them with tales of things from the depths. Centuries of legends had gone by, even for those who use to have lived there.

“I...don't think this is a good idea,” the consort whispered. My little pointed ears twitched. 

“You're right.”

Without warning, Garrett hauled back and punched the Queen in the face, knocking her out.

The consort spun on him, raising a knife before I pushed between them, slicing his hand and forcing him to drop it.

“What are you?” the consort whispered. “What happened.”

Garrett started to tie the elves up as I bandaged my shoulder. No poison on these blades, poison would have been uncouth. Also I didn't feel any of the signs of it.

I ignored him.

Once they were all tied up, I looked over at Garrett. He nodded, and sat down on one of the thrones. I sat down on the other, relaxing as I opened my eyes again, smiling at the consort who was still conscious. None of the others were yet, or if they were, they were still groggy.

“Really funny story, turns out you can't switch places more than once. Good thing to know, huh?” I said, grinning. It felt really good to be back in my body. I did miss having Morley's superior senses though. He'd make an excellent detective if he didn't just murder all the questions. Murdering was the easiest solution though.

“Here's what's going to happen. You and your court are going to leave TunFaire. There's a new court here. And you're not welcome. Do you understand?” the consort looked pissed. I'd be pissed too if my several hundred year plan came crashing down. Then again, cults weren't exactly well known for their ability to pull off plans long term. They liked to plan, but actually having the plans come to fruition? Not to mention they likely dragged the plan out when they heard about the Dead Man and threw it together in a matter of an hour.

“Or I just kill all of you and declare myself a sovereign nation.”

I glanced over at Morley. He wasn't joking. He was busy looting the Queen's body. Not quite stealing from the dead, I guessed. Maybe that was why the consort was so pissed.

We left them there, hauling the chairs out back into the wagon, making our way slowly to my house.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45

It was lit, and warm. Opening the door, Morley and I dragged the chairs inside. I nodded at Dean and Singe, waving a tired arm outside at the cart.

“We need to talk to the Dead Man.” Dean nodded. We'd talk later.

The office was actually clean today. Guess Dean had finally gotten over his fear of the room, and cleaned it. It would also have to be cleaned if I died, couldn't have people coming over and seeing a dirty house, it would be an embarrassment on him. Guess I shouldn't die then.

_You're lucky they didn't know you can't swap more than once._

His voice tickled the back of my head. I winced. With all the body swapping, it felt off, almost. I could also feel his concern.

_It's not healthy doing that for a long time._

“No shit, it's not fun. It's confusing.”

_No Garrett. It's dangerous. You would have likely not been able to switch back._

“What.”

_They were not used for fun, Garrett. They were meant to permanently switch two people, to protect them from mental attacks. A side effect is it switches people in order to do so._

I might have made a slightly distressed sound, as well as Morley. He was talking to the both of us.

“....you could have switched us back, right?”

No, no he couldn't. I felt his unease. He didn't like to admit he couldn't do something but

_No Garrett. I'm not that talented. It would have required a...mental surgeon, of a sort. Even among my kind those are rare._

Great. A beautiful thing to learn now.

“How...long would we have had?”

“I don't want to know.” I looked over at Morley. He was sort of shaky. I looked down at my own hands. I was sort of shaky also.

Pity washed over us.

_You are safe now. You might even be better protected from mental attacks because of it! Go eat and drink. You deserve it._

He didn't want to say. Which meant we were horribly close to not being ourselves any more. I could feel the confusion still, the faint nagging thought that maybe I wasn't me.

“Yeah. Yeah. A good beer would do well.” We both looked over at Morley, surprised. Well, I looked over. The Dead Man looked over as much as a corpse can look over.

He smiled sickly, before heading into the kitchen.

_What are you going to do with that information about Morley you found out?_

“Nothing.”

_It is what I would have suggested._

I headed into the kitchen, and sat down next to Morley as Singe heaped some biscuits and gravy onto plates for us. Morley had decided to not drink beer, apparently he was joking, settling on water instead. 

I knew Morley knew I knew....oh god, that train of thought went off the rails quickly.

I knew what Morley thought about me. The truth.

And if he wanted to tell me, he could at any point. I wasn't going to press him.


End file.
